In Earth's Service (Mapped Space Book 2) by Stephen Renneberg Page A

was
my fault he was under arrest. “It’s mine, not his. He has nothing to do with it.”
    “The presence of such a substance in human hands
is a concern to us, Ambassador, because you have no use for it. Intruder spies
on the other hand do.”
    I was beating my head against a Tau Cetin brick
wall. “So what now?”
    “The Alliance Fleet is regrouping at the edge of
the galaxy, awaiting reinforcements. That is why Observer Siyarn is unavailable.
He has taken command of the Tau Cetin Fleet.”
    Siyarn commanded one the most powerful warships in
this part of the galaxy, so it made sense he would lead their fleet. “And the Ansara
Squadron you mentioned before, what’s that?”
    “It is this system’s contribution.”
    Suddenly I knew why Jesorl was so intractable. Meta
had said two of his family members were away with the Ansara Squadron, but I
hadn’t realized at the time what that meant. “And Jesorl has family members
heading into the fight?”
    “Yes Ambassador, one of his sons and his only
daughter.”
    With Jesorl’s own family at risk, my hopes of freeing
Izin sank. “What are you going to do to Izin?”
    “He will be interrogated. The results will
determine his fate.”
    The way she said it gave me a feeling he was not
being subjected to mere questioning. Whatever it was, Izin would hate it. “I
want to see him – now!”
     
    * * * *
     
    When Jase saw the Tau Cetin android and I arrive
on the landing platform above Jesorl’s house, he hurried down from the Silver
Lining .
    “They had him before I even knew they were aboard,”
Jase said, giving Meta less attention than he normally would have paid a
beautiful woman.
    “It’s not your fault,” I said, it was mine. “This
is Meta. She’s an android, talks like a human, but is really a Tau Cetin at
heart.”
    “Technically, I’m an artificial Tau Cetin consciousness
within a simulated human self aware shell sustained by a synthetic human female
bioform.”
    “And I thought human women were complicated!” Jase
said, looking her up and down uncertainly before turning back to me. “They
wouldn’t tell me where they were taking him.”
    “We’re going to see him now.” A TC craft streaked
down from on high and landed opposite the Silver Lining . “That must be
our ride.”
    “I’m coming,” Jase declared.
    “Someone’s got to stay with the ship,” I said.
    “What for? She can’t fly and they can do anything
they want to her.”
    He was right, the Silver Lining was
completely helpless. “OK.”
    We followed Meta to the spindle-like craft. It was
typically Tau Cetin, all polished reflective metal with no sign of a propulsion
system. As we approached, an oval shaped opening dilated in its hull, then once
aboard, the walls became transparent giving us unobstructed views outside the
craft. Only the floor and the two rows of seats running lengthwise through the
craft were visible.
    “Wall screens?” I asked as the hatch irised shut.
    “No,” Meta replied. “Quantum refraction. The hull
is designed not to impede visible light passing through it.”
    “Wouldn’t that make the ship vulnerable to
radiation?”
    “Why would it?”
    Having no idea what quantum refraction was, I let
it go. Outside, Ansara fell away in the blink of an eye. Within moments, the
planet shrank to a tiny dot as the craft hurtled toward the outer system, past
massive hexagonal prism orbitals organized into a vast array of modular configurations,
no two the same.
    “Where’s the prison?” I asked
    “We have no prisons. Izin Nilva Kren is in a
medical facility in the ninety eighth stratum.”
    “So what do you do with the hard cases?” Jase
asked. “The Saturday night stimheads?”
    She gave him a quizzical look. “So it’s true? Humans
periodically inject toxic chemicals into their systems for recreational
purposes?”
    “Inject, snort, sniff and swallow,” Jase said
elaborately. “What do Tau Cetin androids do for laughs?”
    “Study humans,” she