Outcast by Alex Douglas Page B

where a tall Belaari in a conical hat was waiting with a sheaf of papers in her hand, looking at her watch and glaring around as if daring someone to approach.
      "Get ready for all the last minute conditions," he muttered to Lan and walked over. "Kai no Heh?"
    She scowled. " Heh is a term of address denoting a secretary. I am Kai." She held out her hand and grasped his in a bone-crushing shake. "You must be Captain Prez of the Outcast , whom my government has seen fit to... employ ." Her lips curled with contempt. But Prez was used to Belaari manners, and while she seemed ruder than most, it was not hard to handle.
    "Yes," he said. "I am looking forward to it."
    She looked down at him imperiously. "But you are ku-tah ," she said. " So weak, you cannot even lift the crate of my personal effects. How can I trust you to navigate that... bucket ... across the asteroid belt, when even my own kind find it difficult?"
    Prez felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. "I've never had any complaints," he said. "Done that route hundreds of times. You can check it from the ship's records if you don't believe me, but I assume your government has already done that."
    She looked out at the Outcast and exhaled a huge gust of air. " Meha ," she said, and there was a buzz in Prez's head as the chip struggled with the word. A couple of seconds later, he heard the tinny voice in his mind. A four-legged beast known for its odorific faeces.
    He bit his thumb, trying not to smile. Maybe when he had the payout for this deal he could get another chip that actually worked. Or better still, a synthetic brain graft that would increase his capacity for language beyond that of most, so there would be no more humiliating mistranslations. He shivered despite the steamy temperature in the dock and wondered if he was getting sick.
    Lan stood beside him, expressionless, reading through the duplicate documents he carried. He seemed oblivious to the stares he was attracting from the dock workers; some curious, some distasteful, some downright lecherous. Prez moved slightly toward Kai, to shield Lan from the bright eyes of the workers. They could gawp at him instead; he was well used to it.
    "I wonder, Gelha Kai, " Lan said, and again there was a second's delay before Prez heard the word majesty buzzing in his head. "Why you have chosen to carry such important... cargo... on a mere shuttle such as ours."
    She smiled, exposing sharp teeth. "Your form of address is correct, Aldorian. However it is inappropriate to use in this..." she waved a hand dismissively around her, " work yard . You may address me as Kai."
    "If the topic is a sensitive one then let us go into the office." Lan's voice was deep and quiet. It made the chip in Prez's head hum, as if there was more to his words that it could not make sense of. He had not heard Lan speaking Belaari before, and was jealous of his co-pilot's seemingly-flawless command of a language that had long since defeated him.
    As the door swished shut behind them, Kai spoke again. "It is unusual to see your kind off-planet," she said to Lan.
    "Yes."
    She eyed him as if waiting for elaboration, then turned to Prez and folded her arms "Let us discuss the... cargo."
    Down to business. That was more like it. Prez rubbed his hands together, trying to warm the sudden chill out of his fingertips. He put the documents on the table and pulled out a chair for Kai before sitting down behind the desk, wincing at the twinge in his ass. He looked up at the blinking temperature control machine. "I guess it's broken," he said. "It's freezing in here."
    Kai looked at him, then at Lan. "You are aware of very little, ku-tah ," she said, and he stared at her, puzzled. He felt the weight of the violet stare fall on his hands, and folded them together to give her a better look. The word prompted a barrage of insults from the chip -- half-breed, aberration, mutant . Bizarrely, he didn't mind so much when Belaari addressed him with the term;