Free The Tatja Grimm's World by Vinge Vernor Page A

They’re awfully rare, aren’t they?”
    “Uh-huh. Only a few can survive ocean voyages.”
    Tatja played with Ancho for a few seconds. The dorfox - responded with satisfied humming. The human female was accepted.
    But Svir’s hopes were shattered almost as quickly as they had crystallized. Three men came over and sat down, without a word to him.
    “Miss Grimm, did you … ?” one began. Then he noticed the dorfox. The newcomers sat silently and watched her and the animal. Svir didn’t know what was going on, but there was obviously more competition here than he could handle.
    Tatja Grimm looked up from the dorfox. “Men, this is Svir I ledrigs. Svir, meet Brailly Tounse, Svektr Ramsey, and Kederichi Maccioso. They are respectively the printmaster, overeditor, and barge captain for Tarulle Publishing Company. I serve as the science editor for Fantasie .”
    Like hell . Svir knew he was naturally gullible. Once, in this very tavern, a couple of netscrapers managed to convince him they were hot-air balloonists. Since then, he had always been on guard. No way could his new “friends” be what they claimed. The Tarulle fastboats weren’t due in the Krirsarque area for another three days. Svir had been very upset to learn that his ship would stay a day ahead of the Tarulle fleet as the publishing company sailed east through the Chainpearl Archipelagate. He wouldn’t receive the latest copies of Fantasie —all two years’ worth—until he reached Bayfast in Crownesse. In any case, people like Svektr Ramsey and Ked Maccioso were for too important to sail ahead of the barge, just for the sake of slumming in a Krirsarque dance hall. The frauds at his table had aimed far too high in their impersonation. Of all the literary corporations in the world, Tarulle was the most prestigious. In a very real way, Fantasie had molded Svir’s life: as a teenager, it had been stories like “Pride of Iron” that turned him to astronomy. Svir had long admired Rey Guille and the Overeditor, Svektr Ramsey. But never had he seen a Science Department in Fantasie , nor heard of Tatja Grimm.
    Well , he determined, I can trade you lie for lie . Aloud, “So happy to meet you. I find a lot of your stuff especially provocative since my specialty is astronomy.”
    “An astronomer?” The over-muscled bruiser identified as Ked Maccioso seemed impressed.
    “That’s right,” Svir affirmed. And, actually, he was an astronomer. But the others might assume from his unmodified assertion that he worked with the Doomsdaymen who manned the sixty-inch High Eye on the Continent. Life in the Doomsday mountains was a constant struggle against asphyxiation, cold, mountain apes, and Hurdic tribesmen. “I’m out here to deliver some speeches at Krirsarque University.” This last was an inversion of the truth. Svir was a graduate student in astronomy at Krirsarque. For the last two years he had worked with the thirty-inch telescope at the university. The most recent journals from the Continent had brought news that the priests of Doomsday had duplicated some (or—gods forbid— all ) of Svir’s work. Now he had to journey to the coast to meet with the Doo’d’en and thrash the problem out.
    “What’s your preference in astronomy?” asked Tatja. “Seraphy?”
    “No,” replied Svir. Seraph was not visible from Doomsday. “I’m in positional astronomy. Using very delicate trig techniques, we measure the distances to some of the nearer stars.” And someday I’ll do much more.
    “Really! I bought an article on that very subject for the latest issue.” She snapped her fingers. “Brailly Tounse” reached into a side pouch and handed Tatja a magazine. She gave it to Svir. “See.”
    Svir gasped. There was the familiar masthead of Fantasie . In small letters beneath it were the words: “Issue of the 162nd
Meridian. Whole Number 5,239.” Here was physical proof that the Tarulle fleet had already arrived.
    The cover was a Togoto pastel, at least