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just enough longer than standard to exhaust them, without justifying adherence
to Standard measures.
Lunzie found the research fascinating, and had to remind herself that her real
reason for coming had nothing to do with heavyworlder response to coldsleep.
Especially as she only had a limited time to make contact with Zebara. She had
been able to establish that
GENERATION WARRIORS
75
he was still alive, and on Diplo. Contacting him might be difficult and
enlisting his aid was problematic.
But Zebara was the only option. He'd be at least 80, she reminded herself,
even if living on ships and low-G worlds would have improved his probable life
expectancy. They had trusted each other at one point: would that old trust
suffice for the information she required of him? If, that is, he was in a
position to help at all.
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At the end of the first week, the team had its first official recognition: an
invitation to a formal reception and dance at the Governor's Palace. The team
quit work early. Lunzie spent an hour soaking in a hot tub before she dressed.
The need to wear pressure garments constantly meant that "formal dress" for
the women would be more concealing than usual. Lunzie had packed a green gown,
long-sleeved and high-necked, that covered the protective garment but clung to
her torso. Wide-floating skirts hung unevenly in Diplo's heavy gravity. She'd
been warned, so this had only enough flare to make walking and dancing easy.
She looked in her mirror and smiled. She looked more fragile than she was,
less dangerous: exactly right.
The team gathered in Tailler's room to await then-transport to the
festivities. Lunzie asked about the
Governor's compound.
"It is a palace," said Tailler, who had been there before. "It's under its own
dome, so they could use thinner plexi in the windows. With the gardens
outside, colorful even in this season. It's a spectacle. Of course, the
resources used to make it all work are outrageous, considering the general
poverty."
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"It wasn't so bad before," Bias interrupted. "After all, it's the recent
population growth that makes resources so short."
Tailler frowned. "They've been hungry a long time, Bias. Life on Diplo's never
been easy."
"But you have to admit they don't seem to mind. They certainly don't blame the
Governor."
"No, and that's what's unfair. They blame us, the Federation, when it's their
own waste "
"Shhh." Lunzie thought she heard someone in the
76
McCaffrey and Moon
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corridor outside. She waited; after a long pause, someone knocked on the door.
She opened it to find a uniformed heavyworlder, resplendent in ribbons and
medals and knots of gold braid. She could read nothing on that expressionless
face, but she had a feeling that he had heard at least some of what had been
said.
"If you're ready, we should leave for the Palace," he said.
"Thank you," said Lunzie. She could hear the others gathering their outer
wraps. Her own silvery parka was in her hand.
Within the dome, the Governor's Palace glittered as opulently as promised.
Around it, broad lawns and forma! flowerbeds glowed in the light of carefully
placed spotlights. The medical team walked on a narrow strip of silvery stuff
that looked like steel mesh, but felt soft underfoot, like carpet. A news
service crew turned blinding lights on them as they came to the massive doors
and the head of the receiving line.
"Smile! You're about to be famous," muttered Bias.
Lunzie had not anticipated this, but smiled serenely into the camera anyway.
Others blinked away from the light and missed the first of many introductions.
Lunzie grinned to herself, hearing them stumble in their responses. Such lines
were simple, really, as long as you remembered to alternate any two of the
five or six acceptable greeting phrases and smile steadily. By the time she
was halfway down the line, well into the swing of it, with "How very nice" and
"So pleased to meet you," tripping easily off her lips, the back of her mind
was busy with commentary.
Why, she wondered, did the heavyworlder women try to copy lightweight fashions
here, when everywhere else on Diplo they wore garments far better suited to
their size and strength. Formal gowns could have been designed for them,
taking into account the differences in proportion. But no heavyworlder should
wear tight satin with flounces at the hip, or a dress whose side slit looked
as if it had simply given way from internal pressure.
GENERATION WARRIORS 77
One of the men the Lieutenant Governor, she noted as she was introduced and
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put her hand into his massive fist had also opted for lightweight high
fashion. And if there was anything sillier than a massive
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heavyworlder leg with a knot of hot pink and lime-green ribbons at the knee,
she could not imagine it.
The full shirt with voluminous sleeves made more sense, but those tight short
pants! Lunzie controlled herself with an effort and moved on down the line.
The Governor himself wore more conservative dark blue, the sort of coverall
that she'd seen so much of since she arrived.
Refreshments covered two long tables angled across the upper corners of the
great hall. Lunzie accepted a massive silver goblet of pale liquid from a
servant and sipped it cautiously. She'd have to be careful, nurse it along,
but she didn't think it was potent enough to drop her in her tracks. She took
a cracker with a bit of something orange on it and two green nubbins that she
hoped were candy, and passed on, smiling and nodding to the heavyworlders
around her. Besides the medical team, the only lightweights were the
FSP consul and a few consulate staff.
She recognized some of the heavyworlders: scientists and doctors from the
medical center where they'd been working. These clumped together to talk shop,
while the political guests high government officials, members of the Diplo
Parliament (which Lunzie had heard was firmly under the Governor's broad
thumb) did a great deal of "mingling."
Hie green nubbins turned out to be salty, not sweet, and the orange dollop on
the cracker was not cheese at all, but some land of fruit. Across the room a
premonitory squawk from an elevated platform warned of music to come. Lunzie
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