Serendipity (Book 1 of the Dana Halliday series)

MAGISTRATES. STARSTUFF. DOCTOR FEMALE EARTHER.

With the additional Bruttar freighter crew, the location of the challenge had been moved to a lower arm of the station. I was thankful; at least we wouldn't be sneaking off a ship before we got lost in the Port of Sard's labyrinth.

The venue was a kind of auditorium, a huge cylinder about fifty meters in diameter ringed by ledges and balconies, rows upon rows of open seating. It was how I imagined an old Greek or maybe Shakespearean theatre would be, only on a monstrous scale.

Currently, the first dozen levels were filled with spectators. I thought I spotted Garamil Lirro's purple head somewhere up there, but only about half of them were Bruttar. They all seemed to be men. The rest of the crowd were mostly Sturv, a smattering of Earthers, and a group of Qir. It was a jolly atmosphere, a cacophony of different languages all spoken at what seemed like a full-on shout. There was music playing, but the crowd noise was too loud to discern how it sounded. Buried in one of the lower levels was a concession stand.

I thought I smelled popcorn.

We entered at one end of the thing and proceeded across, through an onslaught of cheering. The surface under our feet felt firm but springy, like spongy rubber. I looked up at what appeared to be a mile of balcony-lined walls, and couldn't shake the feeling that a torpedo or missile or something was going to rise up from the floor and carry us off to kill a planet.

Adrian and I walked to either side and slightly behind the unhappy couple. Novernyi strode a half-step ahead of her husband in her borrowed finery, eyes fixed steadily on something several lightyears away, and ignored the crowd-noise as it turned from celebratory to jeering. It started with the Panno Aid contingent, as soon as they saw Novi and her butchered feathers, but spread quickly.

Lonavat strode along in stoic dignity as well, his gaze trained on the party waiting in the middle of the floor. He was clad in traditional clothing too. It matched his mate's, but was far less modest: a sort of knee-length black kilt-thing with slits up the sides, and a leather vest covered in the same beads and bells as Novi's. It showed off his long arms and the wound across his chest.

"Nice," I'd said when he'd emerged from his quarters on Serendipity. I was trying to be encouraging. "Very handsome."

Vatya had laughed aloud. "I'm not, but thank you." He adjusted the vest. "This is the same as what we wear at a standard wedding. I didn't think I'd ever be dressed like this again. Yuri will never let me live it down." He looked down at Adrian. "I hereby task you with hacking into and erasing any photographic evidence."

"I shall do my best," Adrian replied solemnly.

There were enough camera flashes as we crossed the floor to make me think Adrian was going to fail at his first assignment. It was a little dazzling. I tried to look as if I knew what was going on.

Ritarren Ullo stood in the center of the floor with several crewmembers from the Panno Aid vessel. He wore the same sort of outfit as Lonavat, except in a dark red to match his skin. His feathers were nearly too bright to look at in the camera flashes. Close at his side was another man with the tan skin of the Prechoru and a head of dark green feathers.

Yet another man emerged from the small crowd of Panno workers. This one looked elderly, slightly stooped and with a roughened look to his scales and feathers. He strode to our small group and spoke in Prechoru. 

"I—am—DenalarBarra," he proclaimed. "As—anacting—seniormagistrate—oftheplanetBruttar, I—vow— toupholdthelaws—ofourpeople—andtheconsensusof—thejudges—and—ifnecessary, theassembledwitnesses—tothischallenge." 

He swept an arm at the crowd, which responded with cheers. I decided applause must be coded into the carbon and other starstuff we all presumably shared.