by David Dos Pasos and Dexter Mt. Sinai
Brothers of the Night do not like to be alone. They like to be with comrades. They work and play together. All embassies have offices and heavy doors. All embassies keep secrets. In the Embassy of the Ebony Shadows most doors were open. The doors were only closed when strangers were in the building. There were almost no doors in the residence.
My first job was to clean the Embassy facade and entry hall. All embassies try to have local staff do most of the cleaning. Robot do all the work of course. The charity cases just clean up after the robots. The robots are perfect janitors. Usually the organic janitor makes things worse. But O-2 janitors are a diplomatic tradition. No species wants to look stingy. The Brothers had only me. Everyday I cleaned the entry hall and the facade.
At first I took my time. Kreeðajjay liked that. It meant lots of people would see me. By the end I rarely worked on the front room except to tend to the plants from rieii on. rieii on is the Brethren home-world. I would clean the facade very fast. By then I was more than a mascot. I had more work to do.
It took a long time before I did anything besides clean the foyer [John Dos Pasos: about three years]. By that time I was friends with Imniiriðazhiin. I was on good terms with my wardens. I was on good terms with the Brethren guards who watched the entrance.
I had some Brethren friends. Brothers of the Night are curious. They wanted to explore Alpha City. They wanted to explore the rest of Luna.
The Brothers did not understand the city. They did not like the city. It was strange. The city was full of Humans. There were many other strange species. The Humans were especially strange. It was hard to know what they would do next.
Brothers were afraid of Humans. A Brother of the Night was afraid that a savage Human might attack without warning. A Brother was afraid that they might attack a Human. He might attack because of a misunderstood Human strangeness. Brothers of the Night hated Humans.
All the Brethren were very curious about Humans. The primitive Human city on the big moon fascinated the Brothers. Colony Alpha drew them. Colony Alpha terrified them.
It did not terrify them enough to keep them in the Embassy Residence. I visited the tourist shops of Colony Alpha with every long-term resident of the mission. At first I hated taking Brothers to the tourist bazaar. In those days Xiasa was also nervous when we went to the Bazaar. Later both of us looked forward to trinket shopping.
When a Brother had not been out much you could really see the tension. The focusing eyes darted here and there. The sleek body was twitching. Sometimes it would just flinch. It was really noticeable. An Ebon Shadow is usually completely graceful. On land or in water they glide. Xiasa said that a Brother of the Night on her first trip to the market moved like a mongoose or a vole.
It helped if several Brothers of the Night traveled together. Then some would watch. h e rest would be more relaxed. Sometimes someone would bark. Then everyone would look. Even Xiasa and I would look.
After a while Xiasa and I started to like taking visitors to the Bazaar and malls. They would be very nervous and very curious. With a VIP or the Ambassador security was always really tight.
Somehow new arrivals never noticed the security. The residents could always tell though. Everyone can tell. The yellow card and low grade PP peddlers are gone. So are the kids and teens. Not just the Terragen kids, even the alien children go away.
But high security shopping trips were rare. Usually the nervous tourist just asked a lot of questions. I think they also liked the sensory overload.
The biggest problem on a shopping trip was if a Brother of the Night teenager managed to go as a guide and local expert. There were as many children as grown-ups in the mission. So, as often as not teens went along on the trip.
Brothers of the Night do not have a sense of humor. But they like to be scared. They like the rush. Most Brethren teens encouraged the worst fears of new staff and visitors.
The Brothers indulge their children more than Terragens. Usually some teenagers went on a shopping trip. The Residence would already be edgy with the strangers visiting. Everyone would be polite and formal. Usually the Residence was very relaxed.
The children would entertain the visitors with holo-videos and action games. The holos and games would be the most violent and the most xenophobic that the kids could find. They might even invite Humans, Chimps, and Tymbrimi to visit. Rarely a young Neo-Fin would even take a dip in the pool. This was the only time aliens were allowed in the Residence.
The Brethren youth would take their friends on a tour. Then they would roughhouse with the alien visitors. The Brothers' parents would be very stressed. The visiting Brethren would be horrified. The Brethren children would be delighted.
The visiting youth had a sense of humor. They liked helping with the 'joke'. The young Brethren did not have a sense of humor. But they understood their guests. The Brethren kids could usually tell when someone made a joke. The youth all enjoyed a good conspiracy. I think even the resident Brethren were rather proud of the mission's children.
One day the kids made a mistake. They caused the worst diplomatic incident the mission ever had.
The Ambassador's boss was visiting. She was inspecting Brethren missions to dangerously radical species. She and her family wanted to go to the Bazaar. Xiasa and I went. There was a big teenaged Human boy. He was very nice. His Brother of the Night friend was with him. I think the kids must have brought the Human boy because he was so big.
The Human Undersecretary for Inheritor Affairs wan also there. His secretary and six security men were also there. It was not as tense as usual. The Brethren Official was pretty relaxed with strangers. She had studied Terragen and Tymbrimi society a lot.
Then the attack began. There were flashes and loud noises. Some youth had rigged a sound and light show. Later we found out both Human and Brethren children were involved. But the press was only told about the Brethren involvement at the time. The Humans recorded the whole incident. Security didn't sweep for primitives stage effects. Terragen security was humiliated.
Human guards thought they were under attack. There were no targets. Brethren guards produced 'covert' weapons. One panicked. He killed a human guard. His boss killed him. A couple of other Shadows attacked the Human boy. It took a long time to grow him a new arm and foot. They had to fix his face. One of the Brothers who attacked him was killed. The Brethren kid ran. I never saw him again. Xiasa said we found him safe. We gave him to the Brothers.
The Bazaar was sealed. It flooded with police. They rushed the Brethren back to the Residence. The Ambassador protested, but the police took me in. John was there to help answer questions.
The important visitor and her party said they were angry. My friends said they weren't really so angry. They were more angry that the holo-video was fed directly into the net. The incident embarrassed the Terragen government. The Ebony Shadows were embarrassed by the video. The older Brothers did not understand how the Terragen government could let any citizen multi-cast anything they wanted.
The visitor and her people left soon. (John Dos Pasos: 16 hours elapsed between the incident and the delegation's departure.) Later (JDP: about two days) the Ebony Shadows recalled their mission. They left only a Chargé de Affaires. After a while (JDP: about six months) the Brothers sent another mission. The new Ambassador's credentials were accepted. Then the new Ambassador accepted an official apology from the Secretary General.
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