The usual credit goes to the usual people for the usual characters and plots.

Part II: Gamma Quarter

Chapter 14: Brother

Luine cut her history class, trusting in Holly's tapes to catch her up later. It was a large enough class that her absence would only be noted by the attendance computer scan... and that could be fixed. Instructors hardly ever checked those records so early in the Quarter, according to Ken Deal and other noted slackers.

She had to be sure not to miss Gien's shuttle. At the landing field she arrived much too early but occupied herself with some computer work for math class. This made her feel virtuous: not only had she already finished the assignment, but these were actually supplementary problems that Saavik had suggested she should do. It made up, in her mind, for the missed history session.

Finally the scheduled shuttle swooped down and the small contingent of passengers climbed out. Luine strained her eyes to see Gien from behind the arrival barrier. There were three technicians in full kit, obviously down to do some serious maintenance; several students returning two weeks late for the Gamma Quarter. No Gien. Almost convinced that he must have missed the connection, she was about to consult the nearest computer for more information, when she saw one last passenger emerge, carrying two bags. It looked like a freighter crew uniform... the man started to walk toward the waiting area. Yes, it was her brother's jaunty walk.

"Gien! Here!" she called, almost crying with relief. She had survived all the shocks of her first Quarter away from home, and she badly needed this messenger from home. The young man spotted her too, and jogged a little faster, dropping one of his bags just inside the gate, to sweep his little sister into an embrace.

"Hey, little bug, are ya still yer sweet self?" He was tall and well filled out from hard work, and Luine buried her face gratefully in his shoulder, smelling the machine oil and mingled shipboard odors on Gien's uniform. She clung to his arm as he picked up the dropped bag.

"How long can you stay? Don't worry about anything – stay as long as you can! I can cut classes for a few days."

Gien laughed fondly and looked her up and down. "Hey, you look great. Slow down, slow down. Where do we go first?"

"There's a quad on my floor with only two guys in it right now. They said you could use the extra bed in one of the rooms. So how long are you staying? Answer me!" She actually stamped her foot.

"I don't know! It depends on – on how long I can take it in the grand world of academe." Here, he made a wry face. "You haven't become a prime-grade student since you got here, have you?" He was thinking of his brother Bara, with whom he had never got along very well.

Luine shook her head as she led Gien toward the port exit. "Oh, no! I'm doing all right but it's not so easy for me." They were stopped by an Akadem Security officer, a grad student earning some off-hours credits. Gien showed his freighter ID pass and leave card, and the boy waved them through with a bored expression. Gien held on to his two bags securely as they passed out the gate and he seemed to relax considerably once they had stepped onto the mover. They would have to ride all the way around the periphery of the Main to Jenner House.

Gien listened politely, with a patience needed by older brothers for younger sisters who adore them, nodding appreciatively as Luine described the buildings and the parts of the Science I complex that they saw on the way. His thoughts were elsewhere...

Luine took him to the quad shared by two human Middle division students, Gobesh Dal and Norm Graberth. Only Gobie was there at the moment. He showed Gien where to leave his things and how everything worked, and where he could wash up. Gien told Luine that he would be ready for her "to take me exploring" in half an hour. She returned to her own quad feeling free as a bird (she liked the sound of that expression...even though she had never seen a bird before visiting Akadem's aviary).

Gien Kai-Mekelen decided to skip the sonic shower, and quickly changed into something less conspicuous than a freighter's crew coverall. Looking to see that he was not observed, he keyed some inquiries into the room's nearest computer, swearing at the delay. Then the information he wanted rolled onto the screen. He carefully noted the vital data, the schedule, and the locations he would have to check.

--

Luine obtained Holly's tape that afternoon and made a half-hearted show of studying from it. She confessed to Saavik that she was not going to go to classes while Gien's precious leave was ticking away. Saavik said nothing; she had been introduced to Gien and found him a superficial, overly jovial young man with a nervous habit of darting his eyes rapidly from side to side as if on the lookout for someone. It was with considerable relief that she watched Luine and her brother depart for an evening of meeting friends at the Grub, followed by a few drinks at Zephyr's. Saavik did not care what type of entertainment others favored; it was sufficient that she have this time alone to deal with a particularly troublesome assignment for her multi-Quarter physics course. The coveted peace and quiet were sometimes hard to find.

--

Zephyr's was crowded and noisy, but everyone was polite and welcoming. Gien looked around, amused at all the youngsters in their earnest and not-so-earnest discussions. Part of him was enjoying the role of grown-up brother being shown off by his dear little sister. He really did love Lu and was proud that she'd finally got her wish to get off G-77. It sure wasn't his way, though, and after less than an hour he asked to be excused. "Just for a moment, I have to check on something." They had been talking with some of Luine's friends – all young kids – and he seemed almost relieved to get away. Luine looked at him with a slightly wounded expression.

"Oh, sure.. but we don't have to go yet. I still have plenty of time on my entry card."

"No one said you had to go, O.K.? I'm just stepping out for a moment."

Luine continued chattering with her companions but wondered what Gien was seeking that he couldn't ask her about. He seemed to be gone quite a long time, and when he slipped back into the chair by her side he looked somewhat distant. She felt some of her fun had been spoiled.

"Look, I'm sorry, Lu," he explained contritely later, giving her a hug as they finally left Zephyr's. "There was a tech on the ship who came down here on the same shuttle with me – and I had to find him to tell him about some of his stuff that I picked up by mistake, O.K.? So I just used the terminal in the office behind the kitchen to track him down and leave the message."

Well, that was good. Gien wasn't bored with her company or her friends after all. On the monocar back to the Science complex, she plied him with questions about freighter life, and they shared information from their infrequent letters from their parents. She left him at the door to her quad with a much lighter heart.

Gien watched until he was sure that his sister had really gone in, hoping that she would retire for the night and not decide to come seeking him for late-night confidences. He pulled a jacket over his clothes, checked that his bags hadn't been moved from under his borrowed bed. All was as he had left it. Gien left Gobie's room and the quad when he guessed it was late enough for most people to be in their rooms. He walked carefully down the hall, descended by the stairs, meeting no one; once outside, he walked across the complex, traveling in shadows as much as possible. At the far side of the Main, he sat down on a bench under a pavilion. Akadem's four moons were at various phases tonight; the smaller two were full, the largest barely visible in last crescent, and the oddly-shaped bluish one hung in half-promise to the far west of the full ones. There was enough light to read the hard-copy that the room computer had given him earlier.

He tensed at a sound to his right. A figure was leaning against one of the pavilion's graceful pillars. Gien dared not break the silence; the instructions had forbidden it. The other man was playing the game better than he was: he barely betrayed any impatience.

Finally, a low, soft voice: "Do you know Kenyon?"

Relief! That was the code phrase, and he was ready with his. "Yes, and he gave me a box of caramels for Marge." He added in a hurry, "That is, if you're Avennen." God, was he clumsy.

There was a short laugh. "Quite a coincidence if I wasn't, huh?" The figure peeled away from the pillar and a younger man sat casually by him. Gien guessed he might be a student, perhaps one in his last year, or maybe a postgraduate. He looked nineteen or twenty, tops, but a much rougher twenty than some of the crewpeople of that age on his own ship, the Halcyon.

"You have a drop from Kenyon."

"Yeah, safe and sound. Right on time."

"All right. I can run it to – uh, the proper party myself, or I can set it up for you to do the exchange. Might be best if I do it – I'm less likely to be noticed as a stranger here, and I know pretty much where to find the receiver."

Gien really did not like this. If he hadn't needed the funds so desperately he'd never have gone in for Kenyon's game. He also didn't know what was actually in the packet given him by the in-station engineer at that last space hub they'd visited... but it would mean a lot of money coming to him in untraceable plastic trade scrip, some of which had already bought him out of a night in the brig after that incident with the...oh, well, better not to think about all that anymore. Moving on... now the seedy-looking student beside him seemed ready to take over; he obviously had the plans all hacked out. "I'll check on my terminal all day tomorrow," Gien said, hoping to appear more in control from his end. "Anytime you set up the meeting, I can go."

...And get this damned thing over with. Gien was not the best friend of galactic legalities, but he had an uneasy feeling that, even if the packet did not concern illegal material, it was at least a damned weird way of conducting business. He wondered if it might be drugs – but, nowadays, what wasn't legal? It was not the way it was in the vid-dramas from the old days, when all the good stuff was illegal and people made bundles from smuggling it.

Avennen grunted. "Good. No problem, I'll set it up. And my cut is twenty percent."

"I'll have it, don't worry." As a matter of fact, Gien barely had that much left from the sum Kenyon had given him, but he would see that the man got his money. Avennen vanished as he had come; Gien noticed that the sickly crescent moon had set by the time he started the long walk back to Jenner House. He hoped that after tomorrow he'd have time to be a better brother to Luine. Poor kid, she was looking forward to his visit. He sure hated to spoil any part of it for her. But this business, at least right now, had to come first.