Sci was surprised when the messenger delivered the note. He had just returned from watching the antics with Sylvana and the Joshes, and there had been a man waiting in his office. The messenger, probably from a family that had been servants for generations, bowed politely when admitted to Sci's office. He presented the envelope with a flourish, bowed again, and left without saying a word, but still managed to convey a slight dislike of his surroundings. After he left, Sci shrugged and broke the wax seal on the envelope.
"You are cordially invited to dinner this evening by the honorable Councillor Sklat Mram. The dinner will be held at the Mram residence, in the city of Darwinia, and will begin at 2100."
Sci sighed and pressed his intercom. "Zee, where is Dictator Atner now?"
"I am not sure, sir. Lieutenant Bush was unable to find him earlier today. I would guess that he is in his office, sir."
"Thank you."
--------
"Thayer?"
Thayer looked up, his face already threatening to break out into a grin. Sure enough, Sci was leaning against the doorjamb, his face--as usual--mostly unreadable. "Sci! Good to see you. I thought you were rushing off?"
"Do not be hasty." Thayer smiled, recognizing the line from The Two Towers. "Anyway, I was making some preparations, but...There's a dinner being held in Darwinia, at the Mram home."
Thayer rolled his eyes and countered quote with quote. "Mram. That's like saying, 'The sun's going to come up tomorrow, sometime around dawn.'"
"Yeah, I kind of guessed. But I'm invited."
"What?" Thayer took the note and examined it. "Councillor Sklat Mram is one of the loudest voices in Mendellia when it comes to denouncing you, your organization, your influence..."
"And, undoubtedly, your choice of Queen?"
He sighed and nodded. "The Mrams have been nobility in Mendellia for centuries. Sklat was a supporter of my father, but when my uncle deposed him, Sklat vanished. I've never managed to prove it, but I think he tried to play both sides."
"How?"
"Abandon the Sklat identity, become someone else, and become a high-up in Eugor's government. Then wait while the revolution goes on. If Eugor wins, admit to the past and join with no regrets. If it fails..."
"I can guess the rest. Never say where you were, and have a flawless reputation."
"Right."
"Then why in the world is he inviting me to dinner?"
"I don't know. The problem with this, however, is that--no offense--you're not a politician."
"For which I thank the powers that be every day."
"Right. Anyway, you'll be fighting on his turf this time. He knows the subtleties of Mendellian court, and you don't. He knows what is socially acceptable, and..."
"And I don't care. I've never held to any code of behavior except my own."
Thayer sighed. "All right. Just...don't kill anybody, if you can help it?"
Sci nodded. "No guarantees, but I'll try."
--------
"Your attention, gentlemen," announced the butler, banging his staff against the floor. "Presenting Major Scifantasy." The assembled nobles and notables, numbering about thirty, turned towards where he was standing, and quite a few "ooh"-ed and "aah"-ed.
Sci smiled. He was clad in the dress uniform of Terra Group, which had been designed to be a compromise between the demands of polite society and those of expediency, and have a little personal touch to them. Sci's was black. Tunic, pants, and boots were matte black, with a slightly shiny black hooded cloak. When his team had seen him in it, they had commented mostly on the strong similarity between this and one of the first costumes Wes Janson had worn on Adumar. Sci had just smiled.
Now, though, he put on his best open, disarming smile and strode down the short staircase. He was greeted at once by a medium-height, slightly overweight man, who by his dress and general appearance, he took to be Councillor Sklat Mram. The man bowed over a strong handshake, but could not quite conceal some distaste, and a little disappointment, on his face. "Major, so good of you to come. I must admit, with the short notice and the unfamiliar atmosphere, I was unsure whether you'd attend."
"The invitation was so gracious. I could hardly refuse." Sci was looking at Mram, but with his peripheral vision was scanning the room. By the look, there were another three or four Councillors, and various other nobility. He sighed inwardly. Just what I needed.
Mram, surprisingly, wasn't about to go through introductions. Sci figured it was a bad sign--they were deliberately keeping him in the dark about who he was with, to see if he would make a social gaffe. Instead, with his arrival, the assembled guests began to file into the next room.
Sci was led to a chair near the middle of the table, between a woman dressed in formal attire and a man in a RMAF unifom. He was about to move the chair out and sit down when he noticed that no one else was. Looking up front, he confirmed his guess that his host had not arrived. He did shortly thereafter, looking sour. Evidently he'd hoped Sci wouldn't know about this strange custom. Sci was just glad he was a fast thinker.
Mram pulled out his chair. Sci turned to the woman, placed a hand on her chair, and smiled. "May I?" She smiled back, eyes twinkling, and nodded. He pulled out her chair, and held it for her while she settled down. He looked around the room while doing so, to see quite a few sour faces this time. No one else, he noted, had bothered to do the same, even for his date.
He sat down. The woman, a slender beauty who wore a striking silver gown, with bright green eyes and shoulder-length brunette hair, looked over at him. "Nice power play," she said as conversations sprang up across the table and food began to come in from a side door.
"Thanks," responded Sci. "I figured when I got the invitation that I'd be in for something." He didn't know why, exactly, but he had the feeling that he could trust her. "I don't think we've been formally introduced, however."
She held out a slender hand, which Sci bowed over and kissed formally. "Irene Hunter, of the Mendellian Ministry of International Relations. Lately I've been responsible for helping keep you people off the records. You would be Scifantasy, of the Mendellian Ministry of Interplanetary Relations?"
He grinned and chuckled a bit. "Nice euphemism. Yes, I am Sci. I was a little surprised, however, that Mram didn't include my outfit in this meeting. I expected that he would only invite people that had clearance regarding who Terra Group is."
"He did. Mram is a master of the little touches. Not mentioning who you were was a slight insult."
"Oh, so that's why he was disappointed. I didn't react to it." She nodded. "Well, he'll have to make his political insults less subtle. I'm bad at noticing them."
She laughed. "On your left, in case you're wondering, is Major Nigel Rathbone of the Royal Mendellian Air Force."
Sci turned to the major and shook his hand. "A very English name."
"The Rathbones," Nigel explained in a strong British accent, "were on the same ship as the British scientists who came to Mendellia aiming for the Galapagos Islands. We were not scientists, but ship crew. We are some of the oldest settlers of Darwinia, and a Rathbone is always assigned to be the local air defense commander."
Sci nodded. "I know this might be a sensitive topic, but we didn't encounter any air forces from Terran aircraft. Where was the Darwinia air defense during the Battle of Mendellia?"
Nigel smiled. "Fighting the air defense from Beagle. When we heard about the revolution, the Leaders of Darwinia met and threw their lot in with Lord Thayer. All Darwinian forces were sent to intercept the Beagle forces, which were still loyal to Eugor, and keep them from reaching the High Palace."
Sci blinked. "By tradition, if I'm not mistaken, 'local defense' is a euphemism. There were enough ships at the Beagle garrison to have turned the tide of the battle. I wondered a little where the other cities' forces were; I'd always assumed that everything had just happened too quickly."
Nigel nodded. "You're welcome."
Sci looked back at Irene. "So why did they group the three of us together?"
She frowned up at Mram. "Because we're all on his 'extreme dislike' list. Rathbone there--" she gestured playfully, and Sci gathered that the two knew each other well, "--has no respect for Mram, who only recently moved to Darwinia and expected to be made a Leader of Darwinia simply because of who he was. Rathbone fought the post, and Mram didn't get it. I have been working, as I said, to keep you a secret, and that's..."
"Not what he wants. He wants us gone." Sci nodded. "Makes sense. So he put all his enemies together? Not tactically sound."
"He's a politician, not a military man." Rathbone had a wolf's grin.
"Anyway, I'm sure Mram will take this opportunity to make some snide remarks," Irene said, as Mram tapped knife against glass for attention.
"Welcome, one and all. I'm pleased to see that so many of you have made it on such short notice. Welcome to Councillor Nilknarf, who managed to make his trip from the communities in the West that he represents. Welcome to Councillor Knabidniw, from here in Darwinia."
"Both supporters of Mram and his position on everything," whispered Irene to Sci.
"And, of course," continued Mram, "Majors Seefun Tassle and Niggle Rathbrain." Nigel stiffened, but said nothing. Sci, who was used to people mispronouncing his name, did nothing, but grabbed a roll from the basket in the center of the table.
"Oh, my mistake. Scifantasy is your name," said Mram. Sci nodded. "Well, Major, we are especially honored by your presence. We would be even more honored by your departure. Not from this dinner," he continued, as some people gasped, and others nodded, "but from our country. You and all of your people.
"Permanantly. Your organization is a drain on Mendellian resources; you take up valuable staff, money, and time that could be better put to other things. Furthermore, the influence of you and the other outsiders you have with you is a contamination of the independence that Mendellia is founded upon. And I need not even mention Lord Thayer, for whom the sentimental has outweighed the concrete, and his senseless devotion both to you and the outsider he has named his Queen." All eyes turned to Sci, to witness his response. Some of what was said just now could be grounds for a formal challenge to a duel, and no one doubted that Sci had an advantage in combat. However, any combat would stain Terra Group's credibility in Mendellia.
Sci looked at the roll he was about to cut open and butter, then held it up so that everyone saw it. He grabbed another, and held both up. Shifting both to his right hand, he grabbed a third with his left, and held up all three.
He tossed one of the two in his right hand into the air. Before catching it with his left hand, he threw the roll already in that hand into the air as well. The Councillors and other officials took a few stunned seconds to realize that he was juggling.
Irene and Nigel were roaring with laughter, and everyone else was strangely silent, as Sci increased his speed, pulling tricks such as throwing under his off arm and throwing from outside the path of the flying roll. Finally, he threw all three rolls high into the air, and reached for his belt.
When the smoke cleared, there was one roll in the center of his plate, with a knife protruding from it, the smoking remnants of a second were floating from the ceiling, and Sci was just biting into the third, which was buttered.
Irene and Nigel, along with a few other uniformed men and women who Sci supposed were from the Darwinian defense forces, applauded wildly, but the rest of the assembled people just stood there with dropped jaws. Sci stood and swallowed the last of his roll.
"In the first place, I would like to thank you for this wonderful invitation. Your food is superb." Everyone just stared. "Other than that, however, you are wrong on so many levels that you've been lowering my intelligence with your insane, unfounded babble and meaningless opinions. I would like to remind you that our presence here more than pays for itself, with the trade and other considerations from the New Republic. We helped protect you from becoming the puppet government of an imperialistic dominator, so you should be thanking us. Finally, the private lives of your Dictator, Thayer Atner, and my Lieutenant Bush are not your purview any more than they are mine, so I will thank you to stay the hell out of their relationship." He grasped the roll, removed his knife and returned it to his belt, and held up the roll. "Catch," he said, whipping it at Mram.
The roll bounced off his forehead. Mram was still too shocked by Sci's behavior to speak. "Next time," warned Sci, "it might be the knife." He turned and strode from the room. Irene caught up to him and grabbed his arm, and Nigel led the other officers from the Mendellian Armed Forces out in precision parade formation.