Convergence by C.J. Cherryh
Cover art by Todd Lockwood
Published by DAW Books
Reviewed by Leigh Kimmel
At the end of Visitor, the kyo made it clear that they had no desire to make war with the atevi, or with the humans associated with the atevi. However, they did not desire any deeper association with either atevi or the humanity of the Phoenix and Reunion Station. They had far more pressing concerns -- a fourth species, apparently implacably hostile to them, on the other side of the region of space they claimed as their own. Only when they had resolved that conflict could they begin to contemplate diplomatic relations, let alone making unstable two into fortunate three.
Although the kyo could not stay in the space of the atevi Earth any longer, they left a formal declaration of their peaceable intent in the form of a treaty stipulating the boundaries that both sides were to abide by, and designating the wreckage of Reunion Station as the meeting point if circumstances should arise that required communications between the two polities. That treaty was formally promulgated in three copies: one for the kyo to take back to their homeworld, one for the atevi aiji, and one for the President of Mospheria, the island enclave of the human exiles on the atevi Earth.
Now Bren Cameron, the paidhi or interpreter between humans and atevi, is duty-bound to deliver the second and third copies to the appropriate heads of state. After the peak experience of establishing communication with an alien species at the level necessary to reach such an agreement and formulate it in writing, being reduced to a glorified delivery boy is a bit of a come-down. However, it's an essential part of ensuring that the peace he has won will indeed be a lasting one, so he will undertake it to the best of his ability. He is, after all, first and foremost a professional.
And it's not the only pressing matter. Even as he was dealing with the kyo, relations between the humans on the station and those rescued from Reunion Station came to a head. It's becoming abundantly clear that the station simply cannot continue to support the Reunioners, for a number of reasons. In addition to the practical problems of maintaining life support for so many supernumerary people, there is also the problem of the agreement with the atevi that there should always be an equal number of each species of sophont aboard the station. That number is now severely out of balance, and it simply isn't practical to bring additional atevi up to rebalance it.
Which means the Reunioners must be gotten off the station as rapidly as practicable. When the Reunioners first returned to the station their ancestors left behind, their leadership had been planning to establish a second station at the next planet out, called Maudit. However, in the intervening time it has become increasingly obvious that plan is not practical at this point in time. There simply aren't enough resources or supporting industries in space to both maintain the existing station and build a new station to keep the Reunioners away from the "contaminating" influence of the atevi.
So the only realistic option is going to be taking the Reunioners down to the atevi Earth, to the island of Mospheria that was ceded to humanity at the end of the War of the Landing. However, that has its own problems. There is bad blood between these two populations of humans, and there are those on both sides who have long memories, and who nurse their grudges until they die of old age -- and then stuff and mount them. But Tabini-aiji's position is clear: Bren must make it happen, and make it work.
Meanwhile, the young heir-designate Cajeiri has his own homecoming to deal with. He pretty much went straight from his investiture ceremony as heir-designate to the station and the meeting with the kyo. Although he assumed some very adult responsibilities in those diplomatic negotiations, they were quite different from the sort of adult responsibilities awaiting him back on the Earth of the atevi. Re-establishing and expanding communications with the kyo was in many ways a peak experience, while the responsibilities that await him are of a much more prosaic nature, involving politics among his own species. He must return to familiar places and put a good face on having to come down off the mountain and walk among ordinary mortals again.
And those are pretty heavy responsibilities for a young man who only recently had his fortunate ninth birthday. However, we have to remember that we are not dealing with a human, so we have only the vaguest idea of what nine means in terms of the course of atevi development. All we know is that he will not have another birthday as fortunate numerologically until he turns fifteen. We have no idea whatsoever what ages represent what developmental stages in the journey to full adulthood -- and we have to remember that he is effectively a crown prince, and his upbringing is by no means representative of what ordinary atevi children would experience in terms of schooling, apprenticeships, etc.
Also, we have to remember that, just because his homeworld is referred to as the Earth (of the atevi), we should not assume that it is like Terra in any way beyond being the world that was once just "the ground under our feet" to its inhabitants, before they came to understand they were dwelling on a round world hurtling through space, spinning around their sun, which they still speak of as rising and setting. We can surmise that their primary is probably a G-class main-sequence star, probably not that dissimilar to Sol, so its year is probably similar in length to that of Terra -- but that doesn't necessarily mean that atevi child development strictly parallels human child development. For all we know, atevi children mature far more rapidly once they get through infancy. With only one example, and an extraordinary individual at that, we have no real sense of what being nine years old means in atevi society.
But we get to see him making some very adult decisions, from the moment his father Tabini-aiji tells him that he will be going to Uncle Tataseigi's estate in a highly publicized trip meant to draw attention away from the situation in the deeply problematic Ajuri lordship, his mother's clan. Now that he is the heir-designate, he must necessarily travel with his household, including his bodyguard unit, which is being enlarged with the addition of four very senior Guild, men of such seniority that they teach new members of the Guild the necessary skills. And of course Cajeiri's household must necessarily include Boji, the little parid'ja that his original aishid acquired for him when he was first given leave to set up his own household within his parents' apartments in the Bujavid. This monkey-like creature has man'chi to Cajeiri, but it is becoming increasingly obvious that its antics are not welcome, and are a symptom of an even bigger problem -- Cajeiri does not have the wherewithal to properly train Boji in the manner of hunters of old, to retrieve eggs from nests and the like, and the poor creature is being left aimless and miserable.
As a result, Cajeiri begins to consider the very real possibility that it is time to give Boji up, to find the little creature a better situation. However, he has no time to actually put any plan in action before he must leave, so Boji must perforce accompany him to Tirnamardri, meaning that Cajeiri's staff will have to continue to care for it, and deal with its misbehaviors, in this elegant and exceedingly traditional mansion that feels very much like a traditional Japanese estate.
Meanwhile, Bren is going back across the straits aboard his brother Toby's boat Brighter Days, as reflected in the cover art. There he will be speaking on Tabini-aiji's behalf to convince the Mospherian government and people to accept the Reunioners among them -- and then work out the practicalities of bringing them down and settling them. He and the President of Mospheria, an old friend form his University days, agree that it is essential the Reunioners must be integrated into Mospherian culture as quickly and as solidly as possible. They must not be allowed to form a ghettoized and disaffected minority, hating and being hated by the primary population of Mospheria.
However, that may well be more easily said than done. Old hatreds die hard, and there is a lot of ill-will that's been nursed from generation to generation over the past two centuries. Until the return of Phoenix to the Earth of the atevi, it had been simmering in the background, and the primary focus of extremist groups such as the Human Heritage Party was "protecting" humanity from the atevi, never mind that humans on Mospheria continued to exist on atevi sufferance.
Bren and the Mospherian President decide that the best course of action is to start with Cajeiri's young human associates and their families, with the hope that the silent majority of Mospherians will find the youngsters appealing enough to put aside old animosities on their behalf. Once that is decided, the practicalities of finding a structure suitable for their apartments and securing it to atevi Assassins' Guild standards begins.
Meanwhile, Cajeiri is discovering that atevi politics has a nasty habit of following the very people who are supposed to be distracting everyone from them. Ajuri's troubles run much deeper than he'd imagined, and he's hardly more than enjoyed a few rides on his mecheita than he has to deal with fresh intrigues by those who would contrive for the Ajuri lordship. Intrigues that involve the social structure and behavior patterns of mecheiti, and how they parallel those of atevi.
For there's a stranger on the grounds, an intruder who claims kinship with Cajeiri. Suddenly he is once again thrust in the role of negotiator, having to thread his way through difficult negotiations, only slightly less complex because he is dealing with members of his own species. In fact, he handles these things with such aplomb that it's often easy to forget that he is still very much a child in many ways, albeit a child raised in an extraordinarily rigorous manner to prepare him for his future role as aiji of the Western Association.
In many ways this novel is almost entirely reaction to the things that have gone before, particularly the meeting with the kyo, but also the rescue of the Reunioners from their half-destroyed station and the troubles that arose when they were crowded onto Alpha Station. At the same time, it is also setting the stage for the next novel, which will necessarily deal with the question of Ajuri and its various claimants, and the process of actually bringing the Reunioners down to Mospheria and integrating them into Mospherian society in such a way that they do not end up becoming a resentful and alienated minority.
And there is also a hint at the end that the other humans (perhaps the human Earth and its core worlds, perhaps another splinter group) are not the only enemies the kyo are fighting, and there is also an inimical alien species on the other side of kyo space, a species that has the potential to make things worse for all the various species: human, atevi and kyo alike. It's interesting to see it through the lens of atevi numerology: not only have they failed to turn awkward two into fortunate three, but they are also facing the possibility of being the terribly ill-omened four. Although the atevi don't have quite the same negative associations for the number four that Chinese and Japanese people do, it is still a number to profoundly avoid.
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Review posted December 12, 2020
