Victory Conditions Read Free Page B

jaw, but now he nodded slowly. “I suppose…I should be glad that they didn’t forbid her to visit at all.”
    “You’re right. And they want to meet both of us. Two meetings: one with me alone, and one just you and her parents.”
    “Zori didn’t say anything—”
    “She may not know yet, and for this meeting she won’t be coming. Her mother suggested lunch at a nice restaurant, and I agreed. Her father may or may not make it.”
    “So when—”
    “Tomorrow.”
    “Can I tell—?”
    “I see no reason why you can’t tell Zori today that I’m meeting her mother for lunch tomorrow. But if I were you, I would not be too specific about why. Her parents have a right to tell her what they want her to know.”
    “It’s not fair to keep things from people—” Toby began.
    “It’s also not fair to start trouble between members of another family,” Stella said.
    “Liking someone isn’t starting trouble,” Toby said.
    “It can be,” Stella said, with a rush of all-too-vivid memories.
     
    Stella arrived at The Glade, the restaurant Zori’s mother had suggested, a few minutes early; her security team ran its usual check, and she signed them in with the maître d’. “Ser and Sera Louarri aren’t here yet,” he said. “If the sera would like to wait in the lounge?”
    “Thank you,” Stella said, glad of a few quiet moments alone to collect herself. The morning had been a chaotic scramble as worried officials demanded to know when ansibles on order could be delivered and where Ky was and when the promised Slotter Key ships would arrive. News outlets had played Turek’s speech over and over; normally courteous Cascadians were even snapping at one another and at Stella. The familiar dance of family relationships could not be as stressful as her morning, even if it turned out badly for Toby.
    The lounge extended the Cascadian theme of forest design to include a floor covering that looked, felt, and smelled like a carpet of real moss, a sound system projecting the rustle of leaves in the breeze and birdsong, and visuals that produced moving shadows and lights on the surfaces, as if sun glimmered through leaves. Stella appreciated the artistry, but wished some decorator would choose another theme…a beach, perhaps, or a mountain lake, or a meadow full of bright flowers. Surely the planet wasn’t all forested.
    “Ah, Sera Vatta!” The woman who came into the lounge was older and had once been in Stella’s class of beauty, but dark-haired, like Zori. Now she had the thin, brittle look of someone fighting a long illness or under great stress. Her ice-green suit fit perfectly; her jewelry was obviously expensive but not flashy.
    “Sera Louarri, what a pleasure!” Stella said. She knew she was being examined and evaluated in the same way she looked at Zori’s mother. Hair, manicure, makeup, clothes, jewelry, shoes…she had correctly guessed the right level, and Sera Louarri acknowledged that with the briefest change in expression. As far as fashion went, they were equals.
    “I’m not sure if my husband will make it,” Sera Louarri said; her voice was tense, as if expecting Stella to complain. “He sent me a message; something at work had come up—”
    “I quite understand,” Stella said. “Should we wait, in case—?”
    “A few minutes only, if you don’t mind,” Sera Louarri said. She sat upright on the edge of her chair. “He said if he was not here in ten minutes he would not be coming, but—”
    “You have a charming daughter,” Stella said, hoping to put her more at ease.
    “I hope she hasn’t been too forward,” Sera Louarri said. “She’s…she’s vivacious sometimes, she speaks out. Her father—” She gulped. “Her father indulges her.”
    Stella wondered if the woman was ill, or if meeting her daughter’s boyfriend’s guardian was really such a strain. “Not at all forward,” she said. “Very polite, I would think by the standards of your world as well as