Cards of Grief by Jane Yolen

eyes, of the sun. We all marvelled at that. And though you now cover your face with a beard as golden as your head of hair, the broad planes of the face under it are the same. And the green of your eyes. Though it is fifty years since last we met, you look the same.
    The years sit well on you, too, B’oremos.
    That is yet another prerogative of Royals. We do not age as the Common Grievers do. You do not age, either.
    I age normally. But my time — up there — is different.
    So we have surmised. But then we have had a long time for making guesses and wondering.
    Are we sky-farers, then, still a wonder to you?
    You are something to wonder at. But the six Common Grievers came from caves and we Royals from a cask in the sea. Why should there not be a people come down from the sky?
    Are you afraid of us?
    I was a little, at first. And then I was not. And then it was too late to be afraid. In a time of changes, one does not fear a little change. One fears the end of all changes.
    Then, if you are not afraid of me, tell me about that second betrayal.
    The second betrayal had to do with you, A’ron. And Gray long since forgave me. I wonder if you will do the same.
    Do I know what it is?
    I think you do.
    Then I have already forgiven you. If I know it not, then it was not important enough to forgive.
    You knew—and you did not know. Search your own story, A’ron, for the betrayal is there.

Tape 8: THE MAN WITHOUT TEARS
    Place : Space Lab Common Room
    Time : 2132.9 A.D.
    Speaker : Captain James Macdonald of USS Venture; Lieutenant Debra Malkin; v arious other unidentified officers; Aaron Spenser, B.S., M.S., Ph.D., Star Certificate 9876433680K
    Permission : Captain’s log, mandated USS Code #09863
    T HIS INQUIRY INTO THE actions of Aaron Spenser, Anthropologist First Class re Mission Henderson’s IV is declared open on A.D. 9/11/2132, at 1100 hours. The charge is Cultural Contamination as defined by the USS Code #27. The specification is that you, Aaron Spenser, did willfully and unlawfully violate the Cultural Contact Contamination Act in regards to your relationship with an inhabitant or inhabitants of the newly opened planet Henderson’s IV in such a way that you have influenced—to the good or to the bad—all culture within their closed system forever. How say you to the specification, guilty or not guilty?
    I have been more changed than they by the contact, Lieutenant Malkin.
    Guilty or not guilty to the specification?
    Guilty— and not guilty, Lieutenant.
    How say you to the charge?
    Guilty—I guess. But Captain, ladies and gentlemen, it is not that cut and dried, if you’ll forgive me. There were circumstances—
    How say you to the charge, Anthro Spenser? Guilty or not guilty?
    I can’t answer that easily.
    You must answer. Guilty or not guilty?
    Just a minute, Lieutenant, I think we can handle this a bit less rigidly.
    But the rules of Court Martial, sir.
    This is my ship, Lieutenant, and we can make anything that does not conform strictly to the rules off the record later, if necessary.
    Yes, sir.
    Now, Aaron, you have been shipboard for almost three years, counting travel time, and we’ve gotten to know one another pretty well.
    Yes, sir.
    And in preparation for this empanelment, I even read your early papers on Egyptians with the wonderful tag from that poet. What was his name?
    Carew, sir. A favorite of mine.
    Ah, yes, Carew. Well, I’m not much for poetry myself, though I do have a fondness for another early Earth rhymer. His name was Nash.
    Not exactly the same century, sir.
    No? Well it doesn’t matter.
    I appreciate your trying to put me at my ease, sir. But what might be best is if I just simply tell the story from beginning to end: about what happened to Linni and me.
    Linni?
    Linni. The one they call the Gray Wanderer.
    That’s the formidable tall girl, right?
    Tall, yes, sir. Though not really so tall. I’m taller by a couple of inches, and I’m six two. And not so formidable. Vulnerable,