A Song in Ebony Ch. 04

"You're...Izzy?" she asked.

"Yes. Do you want something to drink?" Izzy asked. "A latte, perhaps?"

She spoke almost automatically. "A decaf cappuccino would be nice." As she finished speaking, the table's surface seemed to flow like mercury for a moment...and then there was a large cup of cappuccino sitting on the table across from the black-velvet person.

"Have a seat," Izzy said. The entity's voice was the same as Violet had heard before, although pitched a little lower to sound androgynous. "You have many questions, I'm sure."

Violet looked around as she lowered herself onto a cushion and set the gem on the table. Were these other people also 'guests' of Izzy? But then she began to see repeating patterns. The kleothic at the table next to them kept sipping his drink in the same repetitive manner, and the level of liquid in his glass never went down. The older couple near the door were talking animatedly, but their conversation was muted and intelligible, and their gestures repeated every so often as if they were on a loop.

Izzy smiled as Violet looked around. "None of these people are real, of course. I just had them in here to give the place a little ambiance. If you don't like it, I can get rid of them."

Violet figured that sitting in a coffee shop alone with this...creature would be somehow more unsettling. "No, you can leave them. So everything here is a part of you?"

Izzy nodded.

She looked at the avatar more closely. "Why did you choose to appear as a man?" That face really did look familiar, but she couldn't place it.

"I thought it would put you at ease, rather than talking to some voice from nowhere. As far as gender goes, I guess you could say that I self-identify as female. But this particular avatar is a male." Izzy gave Violet a wink. "I can be pretty flexible."

Violet was a little taken aback. Was this entity flirting with her? Almost automatically, Violet reached forward, picked up her cappuccino and took a sip. In spite of its odd origins, it sure tasted like proper coffee. "I don't get it. You're a huge and powerful entity capable of looking like, well, anything. Why would you have a gender?"

Izzy set her coffee down. "The short answer is that once upon a time I set up a mental subroutine to explore the idea of, um, gender interactions. That subroutine was based on a female brain pattern. Your next question is 'were are we?' To answer that, we should wait for our other guests."

"Guests?"

The coffee shop door dinged as two more people walked in. The first was a tall, gangly man with sandy-brown hair and kind brown eyes. He was followed by the smaller neon-blue spidery form of a xryakx. Violet was pretty sure the man was Larry Braydon. She didn't recognize the xryakx.

"Introductions are in order," said Izzy as the two newcomers got seated. "Violet, this is Larson Braydon and Jaxalla Nelantra tel Malpa. Jaxalla is a Senior Professor of Naltar Studies at Trinity College, and Larry used to be an adjunct professor in that department as well. Currently, his occupation is being my boy-toy."

The boy-toy in question gave Izzy an amused sideways look. "I knew it. You only want me for my body."

Izzy returned his glance with equal amusement. "You better believe it, babe. Dr. Violet Helstrom is the one who wound up with the gemstone that we gave Hans. She's a researcher in a secret Confederation department in Denver that specializes in analyzing alien artifacts."

Violet felt a little flutter of anger in her stomach. "I'm pretty sure I didn't tell you where I worked. I'm also sure I didn't tell you my full name."

Izzy tapped her head. "It's an unavoidable part of using that gemstone. I had to touch your mind in order to talk to you."

"You get used to it," said Jaxalla in a piping voice. The spidery alien now had a steaming mug of tea in front of her, and she held it in her front palps as her tubelike tongue began to sip at it.

Violet drank more of her coffee to hide her irritation. "Okay, anyone care to fill me in on what the hell Izzy is exactly, and where we all are at the moment?"

"That we can do," said Larry with a smile. He gestured to Izzy. "This is an entity who was known to the Naltar as Izastetlhrandopolthrunf. Yes, that pronunciation took quite a bit of practice on my part. She is a construct made by an even more ancient race known as the Irie. I ran into her, or at least a part of her, during a solo expedition I mounted to Glypso 431..."

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Violet stared at the tabletop. It now had a stack of napkins sitting on it that represented the layers of spacetime that made up reality. Her mind spun through the possibilities of what she'd been told. She knew that a lot of details had been left out, particularly about the first interactions between Izzy and Larry. But even the bare-bones story she'd been given had a lot for her to chew over.

"Sorry for the info-dump," said Izzy, after Violet had been silent for a while. "I know it's a lot to take in."

"Hmm? Oh no, I'm fine. I'm just trying to figure out where to go from here." She glanced at her watch. "First things first. I have to get back and put together some kind of report for Geoff Palmer and return the gem. I probably have about another hour before he starts breaking down the door to my lab. What the hell do I tell him? Should I go ahead and tell him I've had a visit to gamma-space?"

"That's probably not a good idea," said Jaxalla. "The higher-ups have been treating this whole thing as if it's radioactive. I've been visiting Izzy on the sly. They don't know that I was given a stone of my own."

"And I gave a stone to my sister," added Larry. "She used it to visit me, and then the minute she got back they pounced on her. Right now she's being held in what they're officially calling 'quarantine'. I can't get in contact with her." His normally cheerful face looked stricken.

Izzy reached over and patted his hand. "We're still working on how to get her out without creating too much of a fuss. Don't worry, my boy-toy, we'll get her out."

Larry gave her a smile. "I know. I just hope she's okay."

Violet shook her head. "I can't believe it. They handed me that damn stone and didn't tell me anything about it. And then they'd make me disappear?"

"It's not quite as sinister as that," said Jaxalla. She stretched one of her front legs. "The Confeds are just scared right now. They'll settle down eventually."

"I wish I had your optimism," replied Violet. "I've worked with these bureaucrats for my whole life. I know they can get pretty stuck on an idea. In any case, I've got to go and at least get an interim report together for Geoff."

"I'm already ahead of you," said Izzy. She pulled out a stack of papers from under the table and handed them to Violet.

The scientist had to admit that the report's word usage and structure were just like what she would write. There were even some scribbled notes in the margins...in her own handwriting, of course. It covered every test she'd performed on the gem, along with the conclusions she'd come to just before she had inadvertently activated the gem. She glanced up at Izzy's grinning face. "I'm assuming I just hand this to him, along with the gem."

"Yep." Izzy's smile grew wider as she rolled another small green gem across the table towards Violet. "You can use that to come back."

"I must say, you work very fast."

"I'd better. Brain the size of a galaxy and all that."

In spite of herself Violet gave a little shudder. Izzy seemed friendly, but it was easy to lose track of the fact that she was vaster than Violet could comprehend.

Larry touched Violet's hand. "I know exactly what you're thinking right now. Just take my word for it, Izzy cares for you. For all of us. I was stubborn and didn't believe her. So she showed me herself in great detail. I don't think you want to go through that experience...it just about broke my mind."

Violet nodded. "We can talk about that later. You'll be able to send me back to my lab, right?"

"Izzy's really good at precision, once she has a location," said Jaxalla. "She dropped me right back in my office after my first visit."

"And you came back for more?" asked Violet. That was actually reassuring.

The xryakx cocked one of its glossy black eyes at her. "Of course. Izzy's an invaluable source of information on the Naltar, as well as...well, she's a really good friend."

Izzy's avatar and Jaxalla shared a meaningful glance. Larry gave a cheeky smile as he looked at them both, and Violet suddenly realized something.

"Izzy wasn't joking," she said to Larry in disbelief. "You really are her...paramour."

"Oooh, I like that," he replied. "It sounds a lot classier than gigolo."

"But...I thought she was just taking on a gender identity to understand us better. I thought you were joking with each other."

"Nope," said Izzy. She looked embarrassed. "I actually kinda-sorta sexually attacked Larry the first time we met. In my defense, I had been alone for about fifty thousand years and was pretty damn horny. And I had touched his mind, so I knew he'd like a little rough treatment. I still should have asked."

Larry reached over and squeezed Izzy's hand. "You know I'm not mad about that. Honestly, I'm kinda surprised you haven't just gone ahead and asked Violet if you could jump her bones."

"What?" squeaked Violet.

Izzy gave Larry an exasperated look. "Not everyone is a big old pervert like you, buddy. I was trying to go more slowly with her."

"Yeah, slowly," said Jaxalla. "In my case, you waited a whole two hours before propositioning me." She tilted her thorax in the xryakx equivalent of a grin.

Izzy held up her hands in front of her. "And I knew you'd be receptive to it, okay? Let's not talk about this right now. I think we're freaking out Violet."

Violet didn't meet any of their eyes as she picked up the 'forged' report. "I'll...I'll be back in a little bit, okay? Let me get Geoff sorted out."

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Geoff looked up in relief as Violet walked through his door. She slapped 'her' report on his desk and set the metal case beside it.

"It's not matter," she said shortly.

"What?"

"It's definitely artificial, but not made of anything we would recognize as normal matter. It's also not made of pure quarks or anything like that. It also has no apparent internal structure that I can determine. And it's completely inert."

Geoff looked at the case. "I see. And you didn't, um, look into the stone?"

"You told me not to. If you want, we can do that right now." She reached for the case.

"No! No, that's fine. It's good to know that it's artificial. We were wondering if it was some kind of advanced nanotechnology."

Violet snorted. "This is way beyond that. Or even beyond any kind of matter manipulation below the atomic level. My best guess is whoever made this can manipulate spacetime itself to form solid objects."

He visibly swallowed. "I see. That fits with some of our other information. Thank you, Violet."

"You're welcome. Now, if you don't need anything else, I've been up for over twenty-four hours straight and I need to get some sleep."

Geoff nodded. As she reached the door, he called after her. "Vi?"

"Yeah?" She turned back, hoping that her deadpan expression was convincing. Her guts churned. If he suspected anything, she might be in trouble.

But his narrow, bird-like face was smiling. "Thanks for doing this so quickly. After this is all over, I was going to invite the whole group out for dinner. As a little thank you for everyone's hard work. Would you be up for it?"

Violet nodded wearily. She knew that the others in the group would 'mysteriously' be unable to attend and it would wind up being just her and Geoff alone at dinner. But for right now she had bigger things to worry about than her boss's clumsy advances. "That sounds great. But later. Now I need sleep."

"Of course! I'll talk to you later."

Violet could feel the weight of the duplicate gemstone in her coat pocket as she disassembled her impromptu gamma-ray source. She moved automatically as she returned the equipment that she had 'borrowed', her mind elsewhere.

This whole situation was simultaneously the most amazing and most terrifying thing she'd ever encountered. It sounded like this 'Izzy' was a font of information, if the Confeds would simply have the brains to realize it. She had to keep in contact and get what data she could out of the entity. But Izzy also seemed to be a real horndog. If she went back she suspected that Izzy would be trying to seduce her, just like it had seduced Jaxalla and Larry. Was it just simple lust on Izzy's part, or did the entity have a more sinister plan?

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"Okay, that's done," said Violet as she settled herself back down at the coffee table.

Izzy smiled. "Great. So, while we help the Confederation bureaucracy come to its senses, there's a few other things we can be doing in the meantime."

Jaxalla set her tea on the table. "I've got some of my students working on the Naltar texts you gave me. We have a couple of other fragments that, when combined with yours, should give us a hint of where to start looking."

"Looking for what?" asked Violet.

"We need to find out what happened to the Naltar," replied Larry. "They were Izzy's friends, after all."

Izzy looked down at the table with a hint of sadness on her face. "They didn't give any hint that anything was wrong, either," she mused. "One day they just...stopped coming. I miss them." Her hand tightened around her mug.

Violet found that her cappuccino was still warm, although it had been sitting out for well over an hour. Her worries about Izzy's motives faded into the background with this new information. "I don't like the sound of that. We always assumed that the Naltar had run into some nasty xenophobes like the Vish'tari or simply fell into decadence. But both of those scenarios would take time to happen. Do you have a specific plan yet?"

Izzy looked up. "Not yet. I can help you guys out a lot, but I can't be everywhere. You all will have to do a lot of the legwork in digging up clues. There's a lot of space to cover, unfortunately."

Violet nodded. "I see. So if we need to go certain places, can you just...teleport us around or something?"

"No, we'll need a ship," said Larry. "Izzy needs a beacon to home in on before she can go somewhere in our spacetime layer. That's part of what the stones do."

The redhead pondered their options. "Hmm. Can we wrangle one out of the Confederation? That's not my first choice. It would mean that I have to confess that I've talked to Izzy."

"Nah, I can buy a ship for us." Larry made it sound like the most natural thing in the world.

Violet stared at him. "How can you manage that?"

"I've got the money." He rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. "My folks were really well off. I inherited a good-sized trust fund from them. Even buying that ship for my Glypso mission didn't really put a dent in it."

"You need to make sure the next one is bigger, though," said Jaxalla. "I still can't believe you traveled for three weeks in that cramped little shell of a ship."

Larry shrugged. "It worked fine for my purposes...until the damn Vish'tari blew it up. But I can get us the money we need. My lawyers are working through a mess of paperwork. I was declared dead, after all. And I've got another firm trying to get Karen out of stir."

Violet felt a little guilty about her own minor qualms. Larry had to be worried sick about his sibling. "Is there anything I can do on my end? About your sister, I mean."

Larry gave Violet a grateful look. "I'm glad for the offer, but you can't take the risk. Right now we're trying to work through official channels. I can afford some really good lawyers, after all."

Jaxalla stood up a little off of her cushion. "It's pretty late, folks. Or early. Either way, I'm heading out."

Violet banged her forearms together in an approximation of a xryakx farewell gesture. Jaxalla returned the goodbye with her own palps and scuttled out the door. Violet spied another xryakx waiting for her outside; one that was all-black in color and with glowing green eyes. She turned back to the table and saw that there was now a new person at the table, a slender and petite female with somewhat feline features. The newcomer was leaning against Larry. This girl had the same black-and-green color scheme as the masculine avatar sitting across the table from Violet.

"We're going to sleep too," said Larry.

"Just sleep?" asked the girl in a higher-pitched version of Izzy's voice. She nibbled on Larry's earlobe.

Larry rolled his eyes. "She's insatiable, I tell you. It was a pleasure to meet you Violet. Welcome to the team." The pair stood and strolled out the door.

Violet turned back and stared with narrowed eyes at the male avatar of Izzy. "Well?" she said finally.

Izzy looked even more amused. "Well what?"

"Aren't you going to try to seduce me or something?"

Izzy sipped her coffee. "Do you want me to, kiddo?"

"No," said Violet. She realized she was clenching her teeth. Her science teacher from high school, the one who had made her decide on her profession, had called her 'kiddo'. The nickname still somehow made her feel special. Although she wasn't entirely pleased to hear it coming out of Izzy's mouth.

Izzy laughed, but there was no malice in it. "Then I guess I won't make a pass at you."

Violet almost yelled at the infuriating entity, but then paused.

"I know what you're thinking," continued Izzy. "If I don't make the effort to seduce you then it will feel like I'm insulting you. Am I right?"

Violet felt herself blush. "Damn it, get out of my head."

"I'm not in your head, Violet. Not right now. But I can read your facial expressions, your pulse, your breathing. I can make a pretty good guess as to what you're thinking just based on that." Izzy set her coffee down. "You're a little bit of a special case for me. You see, back when the Naltar were treating me like some kind of half-assed godhead, the people they sent to me were primed to interact with me in a certain way."

"You mean a sexual way."

Izzy nodded. "And so I assumed that Larry would be like that as well. I guess I got in the habit of treating all newcomers as if they wanted a good shagging right off the bat. Fortunately, everything worked out with Larry after a few initial...misunderstandings. Both Jaxalla and Karen knew about my tendencies before they made the trip here. Jaxalla was actually just going into her version of estrus, so her mind was already heading in that direction anyway."

"And you didn't try to seduce Karen?"

"Well, she was really here to visit with her brother. It would be pretty damn rude of me to, er, barge in between them like that." Those solid green eyes bored into Violet. "But, like I said, you're a special case. You're somebody who was confronted with me out of the blue. That's why I'm trying to really behave myself." Izzy's avatar gave her a cheeky smile and a wink. "Even if I do want to get you out of your clothes."

That cocky grin suddenly made something go click in Violet's head. She pointed at Izzy. "Ty Trentham, the pop singer! I knew you looked familiar!"

Izzy looked sheepish. "Er, yeah. I knew you had a major crush on him when you were a teenager. Don't be mad, I was just trying to make you feel comfortable."

"Trying to get in my pants, more like. You've read my mind. You know what kind of thoughts I had about him." Violet shook her head and gave a laugh. "But it's not a perfect copy. Ty didn't look like he'd been dipped in black latex paint. Out of curiosity, why do you have that look for your avatars? You could look more lifelike if you wanted to."