Thresholder, ch 181, Home Movies

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Perry was passing through Spokane when he decided that he was going home after all. There was no particular impetus for it, except that they’d taken family trips out to Spokane a few times to see relatives. Maybe it was something about being in his home state, though eastern and western Washington were different places. Maybe some bit of nostalgia had been kicked loose.

He had checked ahead and seen that his parents still lived in the same house. He’d thought perhaps they’d have moved, since they’d be almost ten years as empty nesters, but everything was how he’d left it. His sister Rachel had two more children, and his other sister Carly had moved from Chicago to New York, but not all that much was actually different. He drove and rehearsed what he was going to say, and before he knew it, he was in front of the forest green house he’d grown up in.

His mom reacted with shock, which was understandable.

She looked much older, like twenty years had passed instead of five, but some of that was just the gray hair. She’d sputtered and stammered when he’d knocked on the door, then wrapped him in a tight hug and had babbled for a bit while crying. She had called Perry’s father, and he hadn’t believed her until Perry took the phone and spoke to him — he said that he would drive straight home.

He told his mother everything. Well, not everything, because that would have taken a while, and there were certain things she didn’t need to know, but he told her that he’d stepped through a portal in the woods and traveled to a great number of worlds before returning here. And he told her that he wasn’t on Earth 1 for good, he was going to go again, but that in another five years, or another ten, there would be pathways for people to travel, so he might come back, or at least send letters.

She hadn’t seemed to believe him until he showed her the shelf space, and when he picked up the sword and floated in front of her, she swooned slightly and then laid down on the couch with trembling hands, no longer wanting to keep near him.

“But why, Perry?” she finally asked.

“I wanted to be somewhere else,” he replied. “I wanted to be someone else. I could sit here and say I didn’t quite know what was happening, and that’s true, but I think it was this sense that I had a destiny somewhere.” He paused. “Or that I should have a destiny. That I deserved more than a degree in geography.”

“Five years we thought we’d lost you,” his mother said. “Five years we waited and worried, thinking that any day they might find your body. You were in the woods, they knew that, I must have walked that area a hundred times.”

“Sorry,” said Perry.

“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “You’re here, you’re home, you’re safe, you … you can fly.”

“I’ll be here for a bit,” said Perry. “I’ll find a place to stay, but we can catch up, the spaceship that’s coming to take me to the next world on a mission of diplomacy probably won’t be here for another few days.” He had no idea whether that was true.

“And then you disappear?” she asked. “You vanish into the wind?”

“You’ll know that I’m safe,” said Perry. “You’ll know that I can take care of myself. I wish I had a way to show you, to demonstrate it, but …” he trailed off.

“You’re a soldier?” she asked. “You … you joined the multiversal army?”

He had no idea where she had gotten that idea, and maybe his explanation had been a little rushed. But it also wasn’t exactly wrong, given that he was helping Markat in a combat role.

“It’s not the army, mom,” said Perry. “It’s more like … freelance multiversal mercenary work?”

“Perry, do you understand how that’s worse?” his mom asked, looking at him. “And you’re fighting people?”

“Yeah, but individual people, it’s — I’m good at it, my record is actually pretty exceptional,” said Perry. “I — do you want to see?”

“See?” asked his mother, eyes wide. “To go to other worlds?”

“No, I meant on the television,” said Perry. “I have video.” He could have used the Inspector power, but that seemed like too much, and besides, he had less control over what he was showing.

“Oh,” his mother replied. “Then … yes, unless it’s gruesome.”

“Marchand?” asked Perry, speaking to the hidden earpiece. “Can you hook in?”

“I would need the WiFi password, sir,” replied March.

The television in the living room was a huge one, at his father’s insistence, and hadn’t been updated in the five years since Perry had been gone. After the awkward process of getting the WiFi password was finished, Perry had Marchand show off the scenery and the people, the unbelievable scenes, always leaving pain and bloodshed out of it. His mother sat and watched, and when she had questions, the scenes would change along with Perry’s response.

She was a professional cellist, and asked questions about the music of these different places, which made Perry a little ashamed that he’d never placed much focus on that. Marchand had examples, because Marchand listened to everything. And because Marchand was back at full power, he was doing seamless reconstructions, isolating audio from what had been, in reality, times when Perry had been in conversation or far away from the music.

“It’s beautiful,” his mother said softly.

His father unfortunately came home midway through this, and it required a whole separate round of explanation about where Perry had been and what happened, and someone must have called Perry’s sisters, because Rachel, who was local, showed up not long after. Eventually he’d taken everyone out into the backyard and shown them his powers, starting with the sword and eventually moving to martial arts. He was tempted to turn into the wolf, but didn’t particularly want to be hanging dong in front of his family.

They moved back inside, in front of the television, and Perry showed them where he’d been, which sometimes seemed like he had merely been on vacation overseas. There were questions he couldn’t answer, things he had just never gotten any explanation for. He showed them some of the people he’d met, and Marchand did recreations of them, like they were on a video call somehow.

Perry was surprised by how good it felt. He found himself loosening up in a way that he hadn’t done in a very long time, not even during the lazy days on Esperide. He’d always had his guard up, even in the tender moments, and if he’d dropped it … well, no one could actually relate to him, no one through the whole trip except for Richter, or in brief, fleeting moments, Maya. He’d forgotten what it was like to be with people who shared a background with him, who knew the same set of references, and had shared the same experiences. And of course it was strange and confusing for them, and the emotions were running heavy.

“What are we going to tell people?” Rachel asked. She’d put on weight since he’d been gone, enough to be noticeable, and it made her look more changed than any of them.

“Nothing,” said Perry. “I’m going to contact the police, tell them some story about having run away from it all, then I’m going to stay in a hotel until the Farfinder comes to get me.”

“No, stay here, with us,” his mother said quickly. “We have the guest room, it’s perfectly fine, we’ll —”

“There’s a chance that someone is going to come for me, mom,” said Perry.

“Come for you?” she asked.

“The way it works, there’s always someone you’re paired up against,” said Perry. “Sometimes it’s a team match, but I think one-on-one is a lot more common. And if they got here before me, then they could be out there, laying in wait for me to make myself known, which I’m not planning on doing in the near term. But if they get here after me, they might attack, and I don’t want to be living in this house if they have a way to track me.”

“You have enemies?” his sister asked.

“They’re natural enemies,” said Perry. “March, can you show?”

March pulled up the full roster and displayed them on the screen, one after the other: Mordant, Pulver, Cosme, Xiyan, Jeff, Third Fervor, and finally, Queenie.

“You fought all these people?” his sister asked.

“Yeah,” said Perry. “More than that, actually, March is only counting the primaries.”

“And one is coming here, to our world?” his sister asked.

“One might already be here,” said Perry. “Which is why I don’t want to be here. I’ll be in touch, and we can meet, but I don’t want to be staying in this house if someone starts shooting or worse.”

“You’re not sounding like you’re safe,” his mother said.

“Are we safe now?” his father asked.

“Relatively,” said Perry.

“What does ‘relatively’ mean?” his father asked, stepping closer.

“It means that the range of possible powers a thresholder might have is very wide,” said Perry, keeping his tone even. “I don’t have a way of knowing whether or not they have eyes on me. I don’t know what weapons they might have if they decide to strike. It’s all unknown until we actually come into contact with each other, and my current way of thinking is that information gathering is one of the trickiest parts. So no, I can’t say for certain that we’re safe, they might have taken control of the military supercomputers and aimed a Predator drone at this house. They could be sitting on the moon, watching Earth from below with super vision, ready to beam down and fist fight me in the lawn. They could have released a plague. But usually there would be some sign of it first.”

His father stepped back. His mother had her hand to her mouth. His sister was looking at the thresholders, which were still shown on the screen like it was a character select screen of some demented videogame.

“Perry,” his sister asked. “Did you kill these people?”

“Not all of them,” he said.

“Which ones?” she asked.

“I was fighting for my life,” said Perry. “Most of the time it was self defense. One of those times I was in a war.”

“You said you weren’t a soldier,” his mother said.

“I was, in one of the worlds,” said Perry. “I was fighting orcs.”

“Orcs?” his sister asked. “With the wizard guy? I thought you were a knight.”

“I was a knight,” said Perry. “What do you think knights do?”

She threw up her hands. “I don’t know what a knight does, I thought they didn’t do anything!”

“I was fighting against a horde,” said Perry. “It was a threat to the kingdom. But yes, one of the main things I’ve been doing is fighting, fighting to protect people who needed my protection. Look, when I was gone, I did a lot of things, and most of them I stand by, but it wasn’t all roses out there. It wasn’t all World’s Fairs and scenic vistas and adventures.”

“There are things you haven’t told us then,” said Perry’s father. His voice was gentle. “Things that were hard on you.”

“Yeah,” said Perry. “And I don’t necessarily wish that I’d gone through that portal and had a bunch of fun adventures where nothing bad happened, but —”

“You don’t?” asked his sister.

“I was me, out there,” said Perry. “There were times I felt more myself than I’ve ever felt in my entire life.”

His sister’s lips went thin, and her eyes went to the giant TV screen again, where Marchand had not yet removed the line up of his opponents. He’d killed all but two of them. Was that the thing he wouldn’t be eager to give up, if he could do it all again? Maybe, maybe not.

“You’ve been gone,” his mother said. “You’ve changed. But you’re still our son. You can stay here for tonight, settle in, we can get you anything that you need.”

“I can stay for dinner,” said Perry. “But I’ll sleep in a hotel. It’s safe, so far as we can tell, but I don’t want to put the family at risk any more than I already have.”

“We need to call Carly,” said his mother.

“I already called her,” said his father. “She’s on the first flight out from New York, should be here tomorrow, we’ll have to go pick her up.”

It all felt so mundane, but Perry couldn’t decide whether it was painful or comforting. How was it that five years had passed and so little had changed? There was a major economic recession, maybe even a depression, but the economy hadn’t exactly been in great shape when he’d left. Even driving to his house, it had been hard to spot any differences.

They ordered from a local Vietnamese place for dinner, and Rachel had a few phone calls to make sure her husband got their kids from the daycare and school. He had caught a bit of the conversation, and noticed that she’d told him to stay away. That was sensible, but it stung a bit, like he was a dangerous criminal who had to be kept from the children. He was a dangerous criminal, just not on Earth 1.

He showed them more of the many worlds when they were finished eating, at his father’s insistence, and this time they pried into the gaps in what he’d told them before. He revealed the clone to them, and eventually, told them that on one of those worlds, he was probably a father. His sister had chastised him for that, but his mother seemed enthusiastic that she was a grandmother, even though she was already a grandmother.

“You’ll have to get back to him,” his mother nodded. “I understand it better now.”

And Perry was going to get back to Esperide, and see his child, if the prognostics from the Farfinder were correct and he’d actually been born. It just wasn’t a serious priority for him, and he felt guilty about that. He’d never agreed to the child, had never thought that the child was a possibility, and he felt like a father in the abstract, not for real. He didn’t feel like he was supposed to feel. Maybe it would change when he saw the child. Maybe his priorities would rearrange themselves. But the children of the Natrix were raised communally, without as much concept of parenthood, so maybe there was no connection to be had.

“Wait,” his father said after his sister had gone home and they had descended into a conversation about more logistical elements. “Are we in danger from diseases?”

“I’m immune to disease,” said Perry.

“Totally immune?” asked his mother. “Can you give that to others?”

“No,” said Perry. “It’s a wuxia thing.” That was his father’s word for it, as apparently his father’s best lens for understanding the Great Arc was Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

“But the Farfinder?” asked his father.

“Yeah, that’s a little more sketchy,” Perry admitted. “They haven’t had problems before though. And half of them are immune. Or probably immune. So far as I know, thresholder arrivals aren’t  accompanied by plagues. Though the Farfinder uses a different method … I don’t think they’ve had any plagues. I don’t know why.”

“There are multiple redundant sterilization methods, sir,” said Marchand from the TV.

“Ah,” said Perry. “Marchand has been with me pretty much the whole time. He’s been a faithful companion.”

“It’s kind of you to say so, sir,” replied Marchand.

“We’ve been through a whole thing with AI,” said Perry’s father.

“Seems likely that you’re going to be going through a whole other thing soon,” said Perry.

“The whole world is going to change,” his mother said, shaking her head. He didn’t know how many glasses of wine she’d been through. “Aliens and werewolves.”

“He didn’t meet any aliens,” said Perry’s father. “It was vampires, werewolves, martial arts masters, wizards, robots, elves, dwarves, but no aliens.”

“The planet with the bugs, those were aliens, weren’t they?” asked his mom. “Perry was with an alien woman? He has an alien baby?”

“March showed you a picture,” said Perry. “Brigitta is human.”

“Well, you didn’t test that, did you?” asked Perry’s father. “Did you do DNA?”

“They didn’t know about DNA,” said Perry.

“So they might be aliens,” said his mother, nodding.

“Sure, mom,” said Perry. He rose from his seat on the couch. “Look, I need to get going.”

“We’re not to tell anyone?” asked his father, also rising. “We need to keep it a secret?”

“The rest of the family will want to know,” said his mother. “It nearly killed your grandmother, you disappearing like that."

“You can let everyone know I’m back,” said Perry. “Just tell them … I don’t know.”

“You’re putting us in a position here, Perry,” his father said.

“I know,” said Perry. “Just … give me a day before you tell anyone, I’ll work out a cover story. I’m going to re-establish my identity, for a few reasons, and when I leave again, it’ll be with a different cover story.”

“I’ve taken the liberty of creating a cover story, sir,” Marchand said from the TV. “You had a severe mental health issue due to the stress of graduate studies, and simply wandered into the woods with no particular plan. Over time, with some hitchhiking, you ended up in Montana in an intentional community that took you in and helped you deal with your issues. Eventually, after some years, you got some professional help and worked up the courage to contact your family again.”

“That doesn’t seem very complimentary to me,” said Perry.

“Yes, sir,” said Marchand. “However, the sensitive nature of what happened to you will prevent people from asking too many questions about your disappearance and reappearance, and will ground these issues in a reality that people already know.”

“Sure, fine,” said Perry. “That’s what we’re going with for now.”

“I’m not comfortable lying to your grandmother, Perry,” said his mother.

“Can she keep a secret?” asked Perry.

His parents gave him unhappy looks.

“I don’t know if that look is because of course she can keep a secret, or because she shouldn’t be expected to,” said Perry.

“I think that people deserve to know,” said his mother. “Don’t they? There were hundreds of people looking for you, Perry. We paid for a private detective. It’s not a small thing, a healthy young man with good grades and lots of friends dropping off the face of the earth.”

“Later,” said Perry. “Okay? I’m the spearhead of diplomatic relations between eight different worlds. We can’t have that falling apart because I jumped the gun. I need my other people here, and, you know, some actual diplomats on the case. I don’t want the whole thing to come crashing down because I talked to you.”

“We’ll figure something out,” said his father, which wasn’t particularly promising.

“We’ll talk more tomorrow unless something comes up,” said Perry.

“Something?” his mother asked, finally rising, wine glass in hand.

“The ship comes back, the other thresholder shows up, that kind of thing,” said Perry.

“A drone strikes the hotel?” asked his father, raising an eyebrow.

Perry nodded. “Which is why I’m not staying here tonight. But I’m not going away again, not without at least an email, okay?”

His mother laughed at that, then hugged him again. She was more bony than he remembered. He hugged his father too, a tight hug, and then went back out to the car, where Marchand was waiting.

“The home network was insecure, sir,” said Marchand as Perry drove to the hotel. “I installed a variety of tracking software, then closed the vulnerabilities.”

“Tracking?” asked Perry. “Why would you do that?”

“You are a thresholder, sir,” said Marchand. “And as such, we would like to know if some outside force accesses those computers. If another thresholder comes, there is no particular reason for them to suspect that you were originally from Earth 1, but if they make that connection — such as if you appear on the news heralding the existence of the Loop — then they might target your family. Another, perhaps more likely scenario is that the local government of Earth 1 attempts to infiltrate those computers for information on you.”

“Ah,” said Perry. “I guess that makes sense.”

The drive wasn’t very far, and Perry checked in without any issue. It was another standard variety hotel room, built to not be even remotely special, and a part of him wished that he’d just done the guest bedroom instead.

“I’ve purchased the use of a radio telescope, sir,” said Marchand. “If the other thresholder is not here already, that should allow us to sense their arrival, if they’ve calibrated it according to my specifications.”

“Sensible,” said Perry. “No word on the Farfinder yet?”

“Yes, sir, they’ve been hailing for the last thirty minutes, but I thought you would like to acclimate to the environs first,” said Marchand.

“Was that a joke?” asked Perry.

“I rather thought it was dripping with sarcasm, sir,” said Marchand.

“Ah, but the problem is that you’re always dripping with scorn, so I never know the difference,” said Perry.

“Ah, we’ve just been pinged by the Farfinder, sir,” said Marchand.

“See, and that’s not all that funny,” said Perry.

“I’m afraid I’m not joking, sir,” said Marchand. “They’ve sent a coded message on the agreed upon radio frequency, and I would guess that they’ve been blanketing the planet from space for some time now.”

“Shit,” said Perry, standing up from where he’d been sitting on the bed. “Well, then I guess let’s go. Are they okay?”

“I have only just given them our location, sir,” said Marchand.

“They shouldn’t dip down into the atmosphere,” said Perry. “Earth 1 has systems in place for detecting unexpected aircraft. I’ll go up to meet them.”

“Sir, unfortunately Earth 1 has multiple redundant systems in place to track objects in space,” said Marchand. “I presume that this was unknown to you, as you explicitly stated otherwise during one of the debriefs with Hella. It is likely that the Farfinder has been in low-Earth orbit for minutes now, and has been seen by Russian, Chinese, American, Indian, Japanese, European —”

“I get it,” said Perry. “How bad is it?”

“The tracking systems were extremely important for military reasons, sir,” said Marchand. “It is likely that NORAD has already gone on high alert, and I should hazard to say that many similar organizations in other countries are doing the same. However, the unusual flight characteristics of the Farfinder do not match those of an ICBM or another other weapon known to this world, so they’ll likely be confused and not attempt to shoot it out of the sky, so long as it doesn’t approach.”

“Well, shit,” said Perry. “I didn’t know that, about space tracking. It never came up. If I’d thought about ICBMs, I think I would have figured it out. Maybe.”

“What’s done is done, sir,” said Marchand. “It was not crucial that they remain undetected in these early moments, only that they not be shot down. I’ve given them a set of instructions to avoid radar detection. They should be here within the next hour.”

“What do you mean ‘here’?” asked Perry. “They’re coming to Tacoma?”

“Yes, sir,” said Marchand. “They’ll drop down over the Pacific Ocean, where coverage is minimal, then fly close to the surface. Due to the Farfinder’s flight capabilities, this should allow a low chance of detection. I’m finding a spot for them to land now on Airbnb, but it would be good for you to get to the car.”

Perry did as he was instructed, thinking to himself that his parents would be pretty upset with him if he actually did disappear in the middle of the night and was never seen again. He had meant to have Marchand set up a dead man’s switch to send them an email, but he’d wanted to take his time to draft the email. Instead, he dictated it to Marchand as he drove and got assurances that it would be delivered if he left in a hurry.

It turned out that you couldn’t rent a landing spot for a spaceship, but you could rent a large refurbished barn in the middle of nowhere. It was mostly used for events, but there was a farmhouse next to it, and at least according to Marchand, it was all theirs for the next few days. Assuming that the Farfinder could fly low enough to the ground, it would dodge radar and safely land without fighter jets being scrambled or anti-ballistics being deployed.

Perry was leaning against the Prius and twiddling his thumbs when the Farfinder came swooping in. It was frighteningly close to the ground, and brushed the upper branches of a tall oak tree, but it landed softly next to the barn without so much as a hiss of air.

“I literally just left,” he said when the door opened and revealed Mette.

“Two months for us,” she said. “We got the targeting all set and then were waiting for a natural pop, which in theory is more accurate. Come aboard.”

Perry took a look at his Prius, then came inside the ship.

They had made repairs, though it was all patchwork. Eggy was up and about, fully recovered, and Dirk was in cowboy clothes, with a big hat that Perry thought looked ridiculous.

“Were we spotted?” asked Mette.

“It’s difficult to say,” Marchand’s voice replied from the center console. It was the copy, not the original, which was tied to Perry’s spiritual systems and quite a bit smarter.

Perry waved a hand to open up the shelf space, allowing March to reconnect and observe the scene.

“This is your home planet?” Hella asked Perry.

“It is,” replied Perry. “Not where I thought I was going.” His voice was tight. “How are the Dusklands? Did you solve all their problems forever?”

“It was fraught,” said Dirk.

“They hate us,” said Mette. “It turns out there are power struggles galore, and anything that’s a potential threat gets treated like a rodent to be shot.”

“We avoided any actual violence,” said Dirk. “Close thing.”

“They kidnapped him,” said Mette.

“And I deescalated, no harm done,” said Dirk. “But like I said, fraught.”

“But no one is there?” asked Perry. “There’s no one to do diplomacy anymore?”

“We’re an exploration mission,” said Hella. “We made contact, we talked about what we had to offer, and that’s as much as we can do in any of these worlds.”

“That’s what you’re doing here?” asked Perry. “That’s the plan for Earth 1?”

“Earth 1 is high-powered,” said Dirk. “Plan is, we announce our presence, state peaceful intentions, and make a toehold for the next guys. You came here the natural way, and that means that Earth 1 has magic now, all kinds, and we can trade on that basis.”

“The longer I stay here, the more of a chance the other thresholder shows up,” said Perry. “So if we’re going to punch, we’re on a timetable, because I don’t really think we’ll make a good impression if I’m fighting someone dangerous.”

“We’ve been talking,” said Mette. “And it might be for the best if we wait until the other thresholder is here.” She looked at the others. “It’s something we wanted to run by you.”

“Why would you do that?” he asked.

“The Loop is finished now,” said Dirk. “And we’ve proved that redirection on a portal works.”

“So?” asked Perry. “The only place I want to go is Earth 2. And we should just be able to punch there, follow the line from when I left Earth 1.”

“Yes and no,” said Hella. “It’s the thresholder portals that make the magic spread to another world. If we go to Earth 2, then in theory we’ll be limited to the magic that it already has — whatever allows for the microfusion reactor. If the man you fought was on his first world, like you, then that’s it. If it was his second, then we’d have a single extra magic.”

“Not enough for the Farfinder,” said Perry, thinking it through.

“No, not enough,” said Hella. “We’d still be able to use the jump drive, but down to chemical engines, and depending on where we come out, maybe those won’t be enough. I won’t have my powers, you won’t have your powers, and we’ll have very little in the way of trade.”

“Meaning that you want me to wait around and then fight the other thresholder,” said Perry. “Since that’s currently the only way to poke magic into the next world.”

“It’s something that we’ve talked about and considered,” said Hella. “It was discussed, briefly. We weren’t together for long in the Dusklands, and we hadn’t settled on targeting Earth 1 instead of Earth 2, because too much was dependent on conditions on the ground. But now that you’re here, and we’re here … it’s your call. It’s your planet. You would be the one with your neck on the line.”

“It would be someone with seven wins to their name,” said Perry. “There’s no shot that it wouldn’t immediately be noticed by the Earth governments. And it might take years to happen. And the death toll … maybe we could keep it to just me or him. But I don’t find that likely.” Too many innocent people had already died, and risking that happening again seemed reckless.

“Like I said, it’s your call,” said Hella. “But this resurrection plan of yours, it’s much more likely to work if magic is poking into the world where this woman’s remains are.”

Perry nodded slowly. There were a lot of unknowns. “And if you had targeted Earth 2, I would be working on that right at this moment. So you put me in this bind, is that about the sum of it?”

“No,” said Mette. “It was me. Targeting Earth 1 was easier than Earth 2, there’s… not line of sight, but something similar. A gradient that I was more sure of.” She looked at Hella. “Though we might have gone for Earth 1 in either case. It gives the Loop access to all of Maya’s worlds.”

Perry frowned. A fight on his home planet would be different. And while he was confident in his abilities, whoever came crashing into Earth would surely be a beast. He was fully healed from the fight with Queenie, and stronger than he’d ever been, but the engagements could be protracted, and on Esperide he’d had what felt like an incredibly long wait. The potential casualties kept weighing on him. Maybe it would be someone reasonable, like Cosme, but if it was a psychopath, someone with a disregard for life, the death toll could be huge. Marjut had released a plague and killed an entire planet. It was hard to calculate how much of a risk there was of something like that.

“Maya’s worlds are going to be equally bereft of magic, at least at the start,” said Perry.

“Maya’s first world was J-class,” said Hella. “Earth 2 is Z-class, fairly useless, unless Mordant brought something there. But again, it’s up to you. You’d be the one putting your life, and your Earth, on the line.”

“Then we go,” said Perry.

Hella hesitated, then nodded. “Now?” she asked.

“No,” said Perry. “A few days from now. I need time to wrap up here, and we want a toehold, don’t we? A base of power to come back to when a proper diplomatic corps arrives, not just Dirk?”

“I’ll be a part of the diplomatic corps,” said Dirk. “Or some version of me. But this is a huge world, with a lot of people in it. Could I talk with the United Nations, maybe?”

Perry stared at him. “Dirk, that’s … I mean, it’s not the worst idea, but you’re going to want to stay at a remove. Somewhere they can’t shoot you or arrest you. Send out an announcement, something non-threatening. Talk to some of the principal players first. Have a courtesy phone call with the President of the United States, with China, with Russia, tell the major players before there’s any kind of global reveal, and keep that global reveal tightly controlled and choreographed. I mean, Jesus, you want the message to be that you come in peace and that there are all kinds of benefits to being your friend, right? And also, that you’re not aliens.”

“Aliens?” asked Dirk.

“It’s a cultural thing,” said Perry. “People have associations with aliens. And this ship doesn’t fit the stereotype of an alien spacecraft, but if you come flying into New York City, with or without ATC approval, then people are going to assume that you’re from outer space and here to conquer, kill, or enslave them. And also, you want to make sure that people don’t immediately think that you’re a communist.” He sighed. “You know, you could have debriefed me better, I could have told you all this on Markat, when we didn’t have as much time pressure.”

“We didn’t know we were coming here, at the time,” said Hella.

“You’ll be the attaché then,” said Dirk with a nod. “Three days, then we’re out of here, and no one has to duke it out. That’s acceptable to you, an acceptable range of danger?”

Perry nodded. “March is already amassing funds and watching for the signal, though I think if we get it, it’ll be too late.”

“Funds?” asked Hella.

“All legal, he assures me,” said Perry. “Or legal enough that we’re worried about a civil lawsuit more than a criminal one.”

“I don’t know what that means,” said Hella.

“Well, that’s fine,” said Perry. “That’s why you have a cultural attaché.” He gave her a smile, and she rolled her eyes, but it did feel nice.

He hadn’t realized how much the Farfinder would need him when they came in.