Induction

The diplomatic 'skimmer was compact but comfortable – more so than the last one Triskayen had travelled in – the pool was small, but sufficient for the three of them for the journey, the 'viro pleasantly appointed and warm. Jezindra gazed at everything, eyes wide and wondering: Kafraxis *chuckled* quietly and ushered him into the pool, smiling at Triskayen over his shoulder.
**Innocence is so appealing...**

The journey was of short duration (the Collective wishing to transport the new chialint to safety on C'Prime as quickly as possible) and in Triskayen's case, not a little fraught. Jezindra spent much of it in the small observation dome, watching the passing lightscape with awe, while Triskayen and Kafraxis, tightly *privated*, argued in the 'viro. Triskayen was feeling bitter and betrayed: despite his most persuasive efforts, Kafraxis was having no success in soothing the elder Fohmatraan's concerns.
     **I would have expected better of you**
     Kafraxis growled quietly and inclined his head.
     **Glitter – they knew what he is. I did not tell them that. I don't know how they found out...**
     **That's no excuse, Firefall!** Glittering angry eyes glared into glowing red. **You could at the very least have procrastinated, delayed this journey**
     Kafraxis closed his eyes for a moment, sighing.
     **Glitter, do you know anything of what is happening in Haadri?**
     **No. Never needed to**
     **Perhaps you should**
     **Go on**
     The warrior hesitated for a moment, then *opened*...
     Triskayen was bombarded with information, moving too fast for him to keep up. He raised a hand in protest, and Kafraxis paused.
     **I'm sorry. I'll slow down**
     **Just show me the important issues. The things that will involve Darkness**

There were a lot. The Collective didn't risk their chialints where the highest alerts were concerned – for anything Zgradon-related, for example – but, appropriately guarded, they were employed in other, less dangerous cases. There were several other telepathic species currently causing the Collective disquiet. Ois and Zhaiaa, in particular, needed very careful observation during the forthcoming interplanetary business negotiations, and as yet no chialint could be spared to oversee them...
     **So they're going to use Darkness**
     **It seems likely**
     **... wonderful...** Triskayen growled quietly and glowered at his companion. **I trust he is to be allowed some time for orientation?**
     **He'll be trained, yes. As will you, if you plan to stay with him**
     Triskayen paused, frowning. So far he'd been focussed on what would happen to Jezindra: he'd given no thought as to his part in the future. Kafraxis inclined his head.
     **I assume you'll want to act as a communicator?**
     **Do I have a choice?**
     **It's what we do. Unless you wish to train as something else**
     **Like what?**
     Kafraxis smiled dourly.
     **Given our talents, there aren't many other types of post. I doubt you would want to train as a warrior. And Darkness will be attached to the diplomatic corps. He'll have no choice in the matter**
     Triskayen snarled silently.
     ** Then I have no choice either**
     **... not really. But it is a good life**
     **It's not what we wanted**
     Kafraxis hesitated, considering how best to convince the elder Fohmatraan, deciding it would probably be best to let him experience it for himself and make up his own mind.
     **It will be very good for Darkness. For yourself, too**
     **Our definitions of good are not necessarily the same...**
     Kafraxis laid a hand against his face.
     **Glitter, do you wish to return to Fohmatraa?**
     **Alone? No**
     **I believe Darkness would insist upon returning with you**
     **And then resent me for obstructing his... adventure**
     **That is one possibility**
     **Not one I would wish to test**
     Kafraxis sighed.
     **Try it for a little while. If it proves wholly inimical, you can always leave**
     **Without Darkness**
     **But he will have integrated, found his path, by then. If that proves to be back on Fohmatraa with you, then...**
     **The Collective would allow it? I doubt that**
     **Well... if Darkness refused to work without you, they'd have little choice. They'd try to persuade you first, but if that failed, they'd have to let you both go. However, you would always be shadowed, to ensure no other can take advantage of his ability** He paused for a moment, then frowned. **Would you be prepared to return without him, if he decides his path is with the Collective? If he feels he no longer needs you?**
     **I doubt the bond could be so easily broken...** Triskayen sighed. **But if that happened, then of course I would let him free**
     Kafraxis smiled and stroked his companion's face.
     **You are very... understanding. And compassionate**
     **I don't want him hurt. By anyone. Including me**
     **Then I do not foresee any problems**
     Except for the fact that I don't want to be here...

The sector head for external affairs (southern hemisphere) was an unusually informal Caelixiin named Klinkadinskisty ("call me Klinka – it saves time!") who was absolutely delighted to meet the two newcomers, ushering them into seats with lively waves of her long hands.
     "Greetings, greetings! Welcome to C'Prime! May I say what an honour it is to make your acquaintances."
     Startled – he'd always heard Caelixiin were at best restrained and at worst positively brusque – Triskayen sank into the comfortable seat at the window-wall, pulling the wide-eyed and somewhat bewlidered Jezindra with him. Klinka grinned.
     "I can't tell you how pleased I am that you've decided to lend your talents to the diplomatic corps. Sheya Kafraxis has told me a little about you" Triskayen shot the warrior a glare, which Klinka ignored, "but, as I'm sure you understand, I need a few details for our records..."

'Some details' turned out to be a local hour's worth of fairly rigorous examination, at the end of which Klinka turned to Triskayen with a satisfied nod.
     "That's all most acceptable. Thank you for your forbearance: I do know it's not the most amenable of introductions to the corps."
     Triskayen's head was reeling: he wondered distantly if the corps deliberately chose to have Klinka interview newcomers. Her friendly, enthusiastic manner and constant chattering made it difficult to object to anything she said – or concentrate for long enough to ask anything. He rubbed his forehead: C'Prime's considerably lighter gravity and the constant noise was giving him a headache.
     "What happens now?"
     "Now, sheya Triskayen, I will hand you over to sheya Kafraxis, who has kindly offered to share his living quarters with you for the time being, until you are settled. I hope that is agreeable?"
     Since they didn't really have any idea of possible alternatives, Triskayen nodded, accepting the offer for both of them. Jezindra looked drained and a little pale, and Triskayen wrapped an arm around his shoulders. Klinka nodded benignly.
     "If I were you, I'd get some rest. I know it can be horribly disorientating, all this induction business. I won't need to see you until tomorrow post noon, so you'll have plenty of time to recover. Perhaps sheya Kafraxis can tell you a little about our usual training procedures?"
     "Certainly, administrator." The warrior nodded, gesturing the others to rise. "And I'll bring them back here tomorrow."

An official 'car was provided for them. As was usual with Collective personnel, Kafraxis was lodged close to the centre of Svebant, in a low, pleasant building surrounded by a particularly beautiful park. Inside his rooms the gravity was set to near-Fohmatraan normal, the colours and light soothing, and Jezindra, who'd nearly fallen asleep in the 'car, slid out of the drab coverall he'd been issued and slid into the water, stretching out with a sigh and immediately drowsing. Triskayen smiled down at him, then glanced at Kafraxis.
**Shall we do the same while you acquaint me with what Klinka didn't see fit to tell us about the diplomatic corps?**
**An excellent idea, that first. The latter – you might find it more helpful to learn as you go along...**

Klinka did her best to make their introduction to the torturous and occasionally painful procedure the corps called 'training' as gentle as possible, but it still came as a shock to them both. Fortunately Kafraxis was still present to handle the 'pathic education in CalCol subject specific vocabularies and basic protocol, or they might very well have demanded to go straight back to Fohmatraa. As it was they both collapsed, exhausted, into the pool at the end of every session and slept soundly until the following day. On the sixth day Klinka declared herself sufficiently satisfied, Kafraxis – somewhat reluctantly, he'd grown particularly close to them both – took his leave with a promise to meet them again soon, and Triskayen and Jezindra met the team with whom they would be working on their first mission, which was, as Kafraxis had intimated, to oversee the Ois-Zhaiaa negotiations.
     It wouldn't have been such a delicate situation had the two worlds not had a deep and abiding loathing of each other, and for the fact that they relied on each other completely for two things: the klitranp that could only be found in the marshes of Ois, and the g'znt and floruunes that Zhaiaae grew on their world's uplands and which would grow nowhere else.
     Zhaiaae couldn't reproduce without klitranp, while without ingestion of g'znt and floruunes the Oishin immune system collapsed, allowing the least illness or infection to kill the native slowly and painfully over several years. This unlikely interdependence had arisen about thirty local years earlier, when a Zhaiaae trader visiting Ois had unknowingly introduced a virus, common on Zhaiaa and harmless to the planet's natives, into the Oishin ecosystem. Once there it spread rapidly. It had been several years later, after a significant number of Oishin had died of diseases once easily shrugged off, that the world government begged Collective assistance in determining the cause. The discovery that a regular intake of the spores of g'znt and floruunes – the two plants that gave Zhaiaae their own natural immunity – would grant a similar boon to Ois proved both a great relief to the Oishin, while at the same time leaving them utterly appalled. Neither plant would grow anywhere but on their native world: from now on and until an alternative remedy could be found, Ois was wholly dependent on Zhaiaa for its survival.
     Certain elements within the Oishin scientific community found this situation emotionally and intellectually insupportable, and set out to find a way to ensure that the worlds would be mutually dependent, to forestall any attempt at being held to ransom. Ois was, after all, a richer world than Zhaiaa...
     Zhaiaa was more than happy to welcome onworld a delegation comprised of Oishin scientists of all disciplines: the world government had been horrified to discover that it was one of their citizens who'd caused the disaster, and pledged to do everything in their power to put it right. The delegation stayed onworld for almost a local year, researching, examining, taking innumerable samples, exploring various gene-splicing possibilities... At the end they were no closer to a solution to their own problem – but they had found out all they needed to know about their hosts.
     It was complex and hugely costly and in later years would be held up as an example of the outrageous lengths to which a desire for revenge could drive a sentient being. The work took a team of now-infamous renegade biotechs, working in secret, three local years to finish, but at the end they had exactly what they wanted: a genetically engineered quasi-virus that caused sterility in female and neuter Zhaiaae – and a cure for it, the ingredients for which could only grow on Ois. Then BMtch Koholpin f'Nan returned to Zhaiaa and released the quasi-virus into the central water supply of the capital conurbation, from where it quickly spread worldwide.
     When Zhaiaa found out what Ois had done they declared war. Fortunately the Collective, and the Peace Force, were on hand to prevent it. The two worlds were forced to trade the remedies for each others' problems while the Collective biotechs investigated permanent cures. The system had worked, though not without its difficulties, for the last twenty or so years, but now climate change on Ois was shrinking the number and extent of the swamps which were the only place klitranp would grow. Hence the forthcoming negotiations. The Fohmatraans weren't expected to play an active role in the matter, but given the deep mutual resentment of the sentients involved they were needed to keep a close 'pathic ear on the talks, and alert the guard to anything causing the slightest concern.
     It was a somewhat momentous first mission for two newcomers to the corps, and had the circumstances not been so critical, the Collective would have waited until more experienced personnel were available. Since that wasn't an option in this case, the usual training period of sixteen C.O.T. days had been drastically reduced...

**Wonderful** Triskayen glowered out of the small observation dome of the diplomatic 'skimmer. They were due to slot into orbit over Ois shortly. **Half-trained, inexperienced, dropped straight into the middle of a complete farce of a political nightmare... Plarchinzg Collective...**
     Jezindra cuddled into his side. The younger Fohmatraan, while not having exactly enjoyed their hurried training, was looking forward to his first taste of diplomatic life – and had been left in no doubt as to the high regard in which chialint were held. The promise of being given just about anything he wanted in return for the loan of his abilities was vastly appealing...
     **It will be very interesting, Glitter. I am looking forward to it, to meeting new people, to seeing another world**
     Triskayen sighed silently, and forced himself to a more cheerful attitude.
     **You're right, Darkness. It will be interesting. As will your future - interesting, instructive, and exciting. The Collective will look after you very well**
     **All those worlds to play in, all those beings to know** Jezindra was silent for a moment, then licked his bondmate's jaw. **All the same – I'm very glad you're with me...**