Kia's Biehshah Gift

Part 5 Finding Relatives

Ten grabbed Ir's hand! "There are slavers waiting to snatch you! Theapet offered to help us with this."

The young prince ran in. It shocked me to see him with jeans and a DS blue jacket. The bright blue wouldn't attract attention since a lot of sports teams have that color. Our jeans were the same light blue denim color. Hoped his were softer! Zheien skin is delicate. "I am ready to go with you. We can use holos, so we stay on the ship in safety.

"Kia, how will your father react? Does he know of SETI?"

I laughed. "Daddy's obsessed with antique cars! He has the largest car lot in Mexico City, so I don't think he even watches news." They all had blank looks, so I waved up several car sites and let 'em read. Diplomats love to learn about new things. Ir helped me touch their minds through my Diplomatic Link so I could join in the convo without hurting anyone. The Diplomatic Link is a huge telepathic space that all diplomats join in. They can ask a question and get an answer from an expert, in secs. If they need help to pilot fast, translate a language, or research trades a planet needs, someone can do it for them, if they have time. A lot of diplomatic work is long, boring days of travel so the most common needs like piloting are easy to find an eager helper. Obscure languages and trades can be harder. Ir spent hours and hours explaining this stuff to me after he came back from his mission hurt. Ry'nao introduced me to him through it.

In the time I spent remembering how I used the Diplomatic Link in our future colony, they learned everything the Internet knew about antique cars. Ir learned it first, then helped Theapet with basic facts about Daddy's car business. They'd done this a lot for missions they had together.

Theapet's only 15? He just graduated from Sigan Mas in Diplomatics, and he did it in one year. Most diplomats take four, but Ir explained that First Princes have a lot of enemies, so Zheien do that. The First Prince Of Fhiah is orange, but his cheeks turned darker when he heard Ir explaining things. Now Ir got a bit orange in his cheeks, too.

I laughed. "First Prince Theapet, I guess you're very good at evading slavers! I'm glad you're going with us to get my father and stepmother."

He didn't smile. Pulled at his dark curls, bright blue eyes wide. "O, I shall try to protect them, but slavers watch them. Please, Ms. Garfield, speak quickly!"

That made me nervous. I called Daddy's number. He didn't pick up.

Our holos ported to Mexico City. The map showed this street as Bulgaria. What? It had a lot of car parts dealers. A tiny lot between a battery place and a car parts place had Garfield Vintage Cars with daddy's Garfield car logo that he drew. He's not much of an artist, but he can make any old clunker run.

We walked between a mix of 1920's Model T's to sports cars from the 70s on the lot. I wouldn't know a valuable antique car from a junker, so I paid more attention to the crowd at the door. This felt like I was really, physically there.

Theapet and Ir talked to people in a steady stream of fluent Spanish. It sounded pretty, but I couldn't speak anything but English. I'd never been down here. Every time Daddy offered me a trip down, my stepmother, who is Hispanic and barely speaks English, had an urgent need for the money from one of her relatives and Daddy would let me know he had to postpone the trip. Well, relatives do come first. They seemed to really love each other on video calls.

That office was locked. This time of day is hot, even in January.

Ir got my attention. "They say he didn't come in today. Maybe he is at home. Should we go there? Theapet has a car for us." I looked where he pointed and a purple limo had a crowd around it.

"Let's go!" We got in and the drivers handed out snacks until the crowd left. Then we pulled out into the most horrific traffic I ever saw! But, we ported and left the Thordes drivers to deal with it.