Liam hugged him back equally hard. “So are you, even if you talk like an asshole. Find someone that you can take care of.”
Framkie released his hold. “I'm too old for that. I've lost too many people I tried to take care of. It never ends well for me.”
Liam stepped back. “It didn't work well for me until I found the right person. Don't stop looking for your right person.”
Framkie's expression was stuck somewhere between a grin and a grimace. Liam couldn’t even hope to interpret what it meant and he felt an intense void between himself and humans.
“I guess I should be thankful I got to see you again. When you left after you passed your language test, I thought that would be the end of it. It's good to see how far you got with that training of yours.” He shook his head and half turned away. “I hate this goodbye shit. So you let me know what you're up to on the soc nets. Or I might have to track you down.”
Liam smiled and thought about the drama that would cause with the Rownt. They had come to the conclusion that human palteia always had a weird lingering attachment to those they used to serve, so maybe they would put Framkie in the same category on the chilta side. They would theorize some lingering sense of responsibility would send him out into space to check on a man he had once cared for. The Grandmothers would’ve probably been amused, and they would’ve definitely been impressed by a chilta like Framkie.
“Take care of yourself.” Liam turned and headed for the doorway. He had never known how to say goodbye before encountering the Rownt, and after living with a species that had no ceremony for letting go outside a formal transition at the temple, Liam still didn't know how to.
He walked out the door. Colonel Ito waited next to the government car, his face illuminated by the datapad he was reading. He looked up when Liam came down the stairs.
“I thought you would take longer.” He put the datapad in his pocket and opened the door. Rather than allow a colonel to open his door for him, Liam walked around to the other side.
“I told him we were leaving.” Liam folded himself like origami to fit into the car. He had so much more he could have said, but Framkie had never been one to accept gratitude, not even back when he was actively saving Liam’s life every time he went out on retrieval duty with him a lifetime ago.
“Your brother is meeting us at the base. He actually answered his phone,” Colonel Ito said with some amusement. He likely knew that enlisted personnel avoided answering their phones during off time because they didn’t want to get called back to base. And Framkie’s taste in music would be the perfect cover.
Liam nodded, his head brushing the top of the car even though he was bent over.
“I regret that you’re leaving,” Colonel Ito said. That surprised Liam.
“We’ll still trade.”
“Yes, but I enjoyed tea with the Grandmother and working with you.”
Liam opened his mouth, but couldn’t find an immediate response appropriate to the situation.
Colonel Ito chuckled. “I hadn’t expected to shock you.”
“I have made a significant profit off your trades,” Liam said, which was as good as accusing Ito of incompetence. While Liam wouldn’t go that far, a more experienced trader would have demanded far more in return for a temple gift, an introduction, and an explanation of human nature that a Grandmother could understand. Even Liam had misunderstood the depth of human anger and grief driving the protests.
The driver took a corner a little fast and Liam put a hand on the door for balance. His larger body required him to pay more attention to himself if he wanted to avoid the sort of clumsiness that gangly teenagers were famous for.
“I suspect you could have made more profit.”
That was true. Liam watched the city. Everywhere he looked, he saw signs of the war. Recruitment posters promised wealth and a chance to see space. Ads calling for workers were posted on the trunks of dead trees and light posts.
The Earth authorities claimed it was near an end now, but Liam had been at the front when those rumors had started, and years later, the fighting continued. Ribelians would not yield easily, and Earth would have to fight for every inch. Liam felt sympathy for the troops who first landed on Ribelo.
Ito put his pad down and asked, “Why didn’t you demand more profit?”
“Are you opening a negotiation to obtain that information?”
“Perhaps I will put my trade goods on the table,” Ito said. “The generals do not understand why the grief of one obstinate grandfather has changed the policy of your ship. They distrust the Rownt motives for leaving and plan to reinvest more money into planetary defense so they can counter any aggression the Rownt may show in the future.”
Liam lifted his eyebrows. That was... stupid. Especially stupid for a planet still trying to support a war on the boundary of their space. No Earth technology could ever defend Earth against the Rownt, and the Rownt would never launch the sort of attack the generals feared. It was wasted money.
But Liam got it. Rownt embraced their rural roots so much that sometimes it was hard to internalize how technically advanced they were.
Ito continued. “The generals have asked Colonel Diallo for a psychological profile of Rownt, but she said that she was incapable of providing that report and that the only two people who could were you and Lieutenant Mora. The generals don’t believe you will provide any intel, so they hope to contact Lieutenant Mora as soon as he appears without a Rownt escort and offer compensation for his family in return for the information.”
Liam blew out a breath. Zach grew closer to his Grandmother each day, so much so that Liam worried because Eldest was so old that she was nearing the end of her life. But Zach adored his family on Earth. He was on the soc net talking to them all the time. He might give away a few details to help them. It would put him in a horrible position no matter what he decided to do.
“How much of that were you authorized to tell me?”
