Matriarch Read Free Page A

irregular news reports. Twenty-five light-years away on Earth, his BBChan colleagues had abandoned diplomatic euphemism and used it with B-movie relish; but now the panic had died down, and humans were fighting each other again.
    Okay, deep down, we all want to run the headline ALIENS INVADE EARTH . Admit it, you tourist.
    So Eddie admitted it. It was a journalist’s fantasy story, along with IMMORTALITY DISCOVERED and EARTH NUKES ALIENS . And he’d done those for real, too. But it wasn’t so mindlessly thrilling when you were part of the cause of it, and he still blamed himself. If he hadn’t started digging when Shan had survived a fatal head-wound, c’naatat ’s extraordinary restorative powers would still have been a secret. And a lot of people would still be alive—
    No.
    I didn’t bring Actaeon here. That started the shooting. I didn’t make anyone nuke that bloody island to destroy c’naatat. All I did was…
    He could rationalize all he liked, but he knew he had played a hand in helping Minister Ual defy his own government. And, however accidental the shot that killed Ual, the isenj politician was still dead.
    Like Shan always said: dead’s dead. Doesn’t matter how or why in the end.
    Eddie was so lost in thought that he tripped and looked around instinctively out of embarrassment. But there was only a lone v’guy flapping slowly overhead and the occasional pop as one of the many creatures that lived in bubbles on the rocks ventured out to grab something smaller to eat. Wess’ej was a carefully preserved wilderness and the wess’har trod so lightly on it that they were nearly invisible.
    They’re not native to this planet. They’re invaders of a kind, too. Maybe this is how the Eqbas will behave on Earth.
    He could keep wishing, anyway.
    He walked on, feeling conspicuous, keeping his eyes on the uneven terrain beneath his feet. At the pillars of pearl-coated basalt plugs that formed a natural gateway to F’nar, a little alien seahorse waited for him.
    â€œEddie!” Giyadas had that wess’har double-voice like a khoomei singer’s. She provided her own faint chorus even when speaking English. “You’re going to Umeh.”
    â€œYes, sweetheart.” He ruffled the stiff mane that ran fromfront to back across the top of her head and she walked with him. “With Ual gone, I need to get to know other people in the government.”
    â€œYou called them people .”
    â€œThey are. Even if they’re isenj.”
    â€œI meant that gethes usually only call themselves people, so you must be learning to be civilized.”
    Gethes: carrion eaters. Wess’har were strictly vegan. Eddie didn’t mind being lectured in moral evolution by an alien child. Sometimes he preferred the company of cockroaches when he saw what humans could do. “Yeah, I hope so.”
    â€œI want to come too.”
    â€œAsk your mother.”
    â€œI have to learn an isan ’s duties.”
    â€œNot my call.”
    Giyadas was the equivalent of a six-year-old, maybe. And it was too bloody dangerous for a little kid in the middle of—of what? Another invasion? Umeh was the dry run for Earth. What happened to the isenj homeworld now would happen to his home before too long.
    â€œThe Eqbas containment field will protect us,” she said.
    â€œI’ve covered wars, sweetie. Lots of them. You’re never safe anywhere in a war zone.”
    â€œBut you’re still alive.”
    Her logic was gnawing and inexorable. Like a human child, she was persistent; but she was also subtle and frequently two steps ahead of Eddie.
    He wasn’t used to that—not even from adults. “And Ual’s dead.”
    â€œThat’s not your fault.”
    â€œI’m still getting the hang of the wess’har concept of responsibility.”
    â€œYou helped him to what he wanted to do. He chose badly—for