Midnight was in a bleak mood. Talking about his past usually distracted her. This time it did not.
This was not the Lady Midnight, righteous and frightened, who had come to Tregesser Prime. This was a Midnight without reservations, a Midnight who had been with one man too long. Blessed could do no wrong. Separation became wrenching agony.
Most men found such devotion suffocating. Midnight carried the scars to prove it. But Blessed came close to reciprocating. Flighty and flutter-brained as she was, she was his rock.
“She’s going to take him away, Turtle. I know it.” The ultimate fester, never to be healed: She could not compete with a true woman anywhere but in bed. So long as that was true, she could not be secure.
“Tina? No. They’re just friends doing something that will benefit them both. Blessed will make his heir and gain the backing of a strong faction in the Directorate. Tina gains an alliance with the Chair and becomes the mother of the Chair. Her heart isn’t set on Blessed. She wants Cable Shike.”
“Being mother to the heir could get her killed.”
“The succession will be more orderly with Lupo to supervise.”
“Lupo could get killed.”
“There is more to him than meets the eye. He would be hard to kill.”
Midnight stared out to sea, perhaps tempted to dive into the salt breeze and spread her wings against that turquoise plain. But she dared not. The gravity of Prime was too great. When she must fly, Blessed sent her to 3G, a resort station. When he especially wanted to please her, he joined her.
“I’m doing it again. Bothering you with trivia when you have an empire on your mind.”
“Pain is not trivial, Midnight. It has the power to define us. Your fear of losing Blessed is as potent as mine that I have pledged myself to the wrong standard.”
The Wizard could not unravel the schemes of Lupo Provik. Maybe because Provik was weaving something whose ends he could not see. His one certain goal was to slide the House out of the closing jaws of Guardships and Outside.
“Is something happening?”
“Soon. Provik has heard of a big battle.”
“The Guardships won?”
“They always win. The Outsiders will be desperate. We won’t be able to evade much longer.”
“What will you do?”
“That depends on Provik.”
“Why is it always Lupo, never Blessed or his mother?” She did not understand Others. When she saw more than one Valerena or Blessed, she became bewildered. She could not get it through her head that the Valerena who mattered had died.
“Blessed defers to Provik’s experience and talent. Provik is the only one who can pull the House out of this crack.”
“Could you capture Starbase? If that’s the price?” Her voice trembled.
“Maybe. It would have been easier with VI Adjutrix. I’m not anxious to try.”
“I don’t want you to. Any of you. There’s a boat coming.” An arrow of white wake reached toward the island.
“Yes.” He had known for some time. His vision was more acute.
“Maybe Blessed got a chance to get away.” She unfolded her wings. They were brilliant. She was happy.
“Maybe.” But he doubted it.
— 105 —
WarAvocat was reluctant to give the order. It meant he would surrender his role as force commander.
The worst was past, though. The methane breathers had their backs against the wall. Now it was a matter of wearing them down.
VII Gemina was no longer combat effective. After three years even the Deified were tired.
It was time to go home.
He gave the order.
Starbase had changed. Construction channels were storms of sound and fire. A millennium’s hoard of materials had been consumed. A few more years and the fleet would begin to feel the drain.
He tried catching up on what had happened inside Canon space. Incursions and provocations everywhere, answered ruthlessly as diminished forces tried to hold the Rims
Canon would double in volume before the plague of violence ran its course.
The fleet had to be expanded. It was able to cope now only by employing its nameless reserves and because Starbase Dengaida could provide some repairs and replacement secondaries.
Starbase agreed. Expansion was necessary. Canon had grown but the fleet had not.
Starbase proposed expansion to one hundred units and construction of five more Starbases. Twelve Guardships to be assigned each Starbase with twenty-eight palatine units at Starbase Tulsa able to reinforce in any direction.
Starbase had other suggestions. Enrollment of five million new volunteers. Continuous recruiting afterward. Renovation of Canon’s administration. The enfranchisement of nonhumans, who made up the majority of the population in Canon space. And a long list more.
WarAvocat wondered if Kez Maefele had found some way to tamper with the system.
But Starbase had been ruminating upon Canon’s next two thousand years for some time.
WarAvocat was intrigued by one report originating outside usual sources. Its having reached Starbase at all was enough to make one consider reevaluating the certainty that there was no Divine Providence.
It came out of House Tregesser, unloved by Canon officialdom. As witness the wilderness of coda, addenda, and subscripts the report had accumulated, meant to vilify House Tregesser, whose main crime was that it refused to be gobbled by the bureaucratic machine.
House Tregesser claimed to be the object of an Outsider effort to take advantage of its maverick status. The House had defended itself and had captured several Outsider humans.
They had no idea of their origin. Their memory was one memory. Their history was one history. Alliance in worship of the Destroyer. They had been prowling the Web, with the methane breathers, committing holy atrocities, for ages. Their allies had no idea whence they sprang either.
The Godspeakers were so called because they could summon the Presence to grisly rites carried out by their human cohorts. They could communicate over any distance through the medium of the Web.
“Uhm!”
Though the Godspeakers set down colonies wherever they found suitable worlds, they were not empire builders. Nor were they true proselytizers. Those sprang from their human companions.
WarAvocat paced, bewildered. His experience with superstition was limited to an uncertain belief in Tawn, VII Gemina’s tutelary. He was repelled and revolted by those creatures. He felt no impulse toward mercy.
He was tired and slow. Maybe he was too old. He considered potential successors. None could cope any better.
“Access, the Deified Aleas Notable, if she’s willing.” They had become friends during their year as Dictats. He had not stood for reelection. She had been reelected the twice she had stood.
“Hanaver? Are you brooding again?”
“Me?”
“You.”
He asked if she had reviewed the data just received.
“I have now.”
Disconcerting. “And the commentaries filed in response?”
“Ah. I see what you mean. This struggle will have no end short of extermination of the methane breathers and their creed. It’s the most evil thing we’ve ever encountered.”
“Have you reviewed Starbase’s recommendations?”
“No subject has ever exercised the Deified as much. But I doubt any have reviewed the Outsider info — and I suspect its implications are the predicates upon which Starbase’s recommendations are based. You wanted me to see that? I’ve passed it on.”
“I want an opinion. Should I retire?”
The face on the screen went vacant. Then, “You want a vote of confidence? You got it. Nine to one against your retirement.”
“My confidence doesn’t need buoying. I’m burned out, Aleas.”
“And thinking about the artifact still?”
He had told her. “Yes. Damn it. I’m lonely.”
“Gemina has her specs.
We could run a copy.”
“Politically unacceptable.”
“We’ll think of something.”
“I’m sorry for disturbing you.”
“Hanaver Strate! You... Forget it. I have things to do.”
WarAvocat grunted. If he got to work, he would not have these lapses. He would not have the time.
He put the Tregesser report aside, reviewed what other Guardships had learned about the enemy empire. The information would not take shape as a whole. Maybe if he went to Hall of the Stars....
Something had begun to nag. Something to do with star charts. Spots of blue.
“Access, Gemina. I need the visual data gathered by the soldiers who stormed the orbital fortress used to neutralize Objective Thirty-Eight.” He had reviewed the material once and found it uninteresting. “Specifically, what was taped at the fortress’s heart.”
One company had gone all the way. The heart had proved to be a hollow sphere containing several thousand points of blue light. Twenty-some methane breathers had lain heaped in bowls on the surface of that hollow.
Could those blue points be some kind of chart?
He ordered them examined on that assumption. Gemina justified everything into the human sensory range, presented it three-dimensionally.
“It is a chart, then?”
affirmative
“Of what?”
insufficient data
“Find correspondences with our own charts.”
Blink-blink-blink, a wave of about eighty flashes. systems suspected to be occupied by methane breathers. there are no representations for systems neutralized. A lot of blinks. systems inhabited by subject species.
“What’s our viewpoint? Show me the Rim.”
A red gauze curtain sliced off part of the egg. Blue points floated on the Canon side. “Damn. Match those with known systems. Then eliminate everything associated with a known system.”
As blue sparks vanished, he noted the presence of a brown sparkle similar to those representing subject systems not associated with blue sparks. “Knock out the brown spots not associated with a known system.”
All those went. Several hundred blue sparks remained. He toyed with them, concluded they represented methane breathers on the Web.
They could track one another on the Web!
action incumbent?
“Advise Starbase. Suggest directives to all systems noted our side of the Rim. Also suggest penetration of additional orbital fortresses to obtain longer tape exposures.”
He sat down, leaned back, closed his eyes, pleased with himself.
“That quick interplay of analysis and intuition is why the Deified won’t accept your retirement.”
“Aleas?”
“In the flesh.”
He opened his eyes. “What the hell?”
“I had myself reanimated. Gemina approved. That’s some response, Hanaver. When I was this age, I was considered reasonably attractive. By the standards of the time.”
“Or any other.” This was an act of friendship that prostrated him. And one he did not know how to accept.
“It’ll take me a while to learn how to handle a body again. I’d forgotten so much. Especially how limited you are.”
“Aleas...”
“Never mind, Hanaver. I know you better than you think. It’s worth a try.”
— 106 —
Again there were three men in the embassy. These three were accustomed to Canon ways. Their spokesman was a florid, heavy man who smiled a lot even when he was alone with his own kind.
“Their top gun,” Two told Provik.
“Yes. Anything more from station?”
“It’s done.”
“Set the stage, then.”
Two brought in a Valerena Other, Blessed, the Ku, and Cable Shike. Lupo said, “Sorry we ruined your holiday, Kez Maefele. You deserved it. Have you heard the word from J. Belaria?”
“Yes. I expect it explains why they are conciliatory.”
“I didn’t think it would work. Nobody ought to be so dumb they run from decoys into an ambush.”
“You knew they were decoys. They could not tell what was real and what wasn’t. They should now think House Tregesser much stronger than it is.”
“Let’s find out. Let them in, Two.”
Blessed asked, “Why the hell do you call her Two?”
“It’s her name.”
“It’s weird.”
Even the Valerena smiled at that from someone named Blessed.
Blessed blustered. “Can’t she talk? She never says anything.”
“Of course she can. When she has something to say.”
Two winked at Blessed before she opened the door.
Lupo got up from behind his desk, met the florid man. “Welcome to Tregesser Horata, Mr. Korint. It’s been a while.”
Startled reaction. “You know me?”
“You were often there when Simon was arms shopping. You preferred the name Rejins.” Lupo resumed his seat. “We appreciate your coming in civilized instead of like pirates. Though the presence of that Godspeaker thing was a provocation. We disposed of it. Let’s get down to business.”
“You messed with the Godspeaker?”
“No. We killed it. Those things aren’t welcome in Tregesser space.”
Korint was aghast. Likewise, his companions.
“I want you to understand that I find your religion loathsome. It deserves everything the Guardships are doing. But I don’t let prejudice get in the way of business. What do you have to offer?”
The encounter had Korint turned around. “A chance to survive, Provik.”
“Are we in some danger? We’ve had nuisance level problems with pirates but haven’t had any trouble handling it. Heard about J. Belaria? Twenty-four pirate ships destroyed?”
“I’ve heard.”
“Good. You’re against the wall. You want help. We might be willing. If there’s something in it for us.”
Korint opened his mouth.
“Don’t tell me you’ll betray us to the Guardships. We rewrote that chapter starting when the shooting stopped in that end space. You’ve helped our image, trying to leverage us.”
Korint forced a smile. “I was told you could run a bluff with a straight face.”
Lupo set a cosmetic jar on his desk. “There’s Jane in this. You know Jane?”
Korint knew the lady well. His companions would not approve. Who had who?
“Come, Mr. Korint. What do you have to offer?”
Blessed said, “We’re as sure of ourselves as the Guardships are. We have something to sell.” He leaned against a wall instead of sitting.
Lupo said, “We can’t give you victory. But we might sell you a stalemate.”
Blessed said, “Your Mr. Marin, of the second mission, had an intimate knowledge of your assets inside Canon space.”
The Valerena Other said, “We had to neutralize those in a position to trouble House Tregesser. We left the rest undisturbed. They’ll help us more where they are. For now.”
One of Korint’s companions muttered, “You’re a murderous bunch.”
Cable Shike giggled. Lupo glanced at him, startled. “Sorry. It was him getting righteous.”
Korint snapped, “Let’s cut the shit, Provik. You claim our only leverage is financial.” ‘
“We can be bought.”
“You no longer cling to the idealism that obtained in that end space?”
“Hell no! The Guardships are awake now.”
The Ku said, “The dragon never sleeps, Mr. Provik.”
Korint said, “I can’t see that we have a basis for discussion.”
“Then what the hell are you doing here?”
“The Godspeakers are used to taking what they want. But you’re right. We should hear you out. What do you have?”
“The key to Starbase. Two of my people have been in there.” That put the fire in their eyes. “We also have talent to rent. Kez Maefele, formerly of the Dire Radia
nt, whose strategies have made your attempts to harass us so costly.” They recognized the name.
They looked at the living legend. He looked back. Lupo hoped the Ku would not have one of his moral seizures before the game was snared. If he sold this, they might be home free.
“I’ll relay this,” Korint said. “How would you price knowledge and talent?”
“Megatonnages of platinum, paladium, iridium, rhodium, transuranics, other rare elements. Information. Like everything you ever collected about the Guardships but haven’t shared. What you know about the Web that we don’t. Put a package together that will blind us, triple it, remember your alternative to going broke is getting wiped out, triple it again, and come back. Because you planned to screw us in the end space, we’ll want payment in advance. We’ll pick the time and place. Outside.”
“And we’d have to trust you?”
“House Tregesser keeps its word. It’s House policy. Consider. We do have a commercial interest in keeping you in business.”
Three pairs of eyes drilled him with javelins of contempt. Korint said, “We have no authority to negotiate.”
“I said, go see what it’s worth. We’ll wait. When you come back, don’t bring any monsters. That would upset us. Two, turn these people over to T. W. Tell her to see to all their needs.”
Turtle refused to react to the face of what he had seen. Provik was up to something. No point assuming a stance till he knew what that was.
Provik stared at the door after the Outsiders left. “Our problem is, they can take us down.”
Blessed asked, “You going to tell us what you’re thinking?”
“It’s only starting to shape up. Till now I wasn’t sure we could work anything. Now I know it won’t be anything mutually beneficial. Now I know they were going to screw us in the end space. If they pull off the miracle of the ages and dump the Guardships, we’re cooked just as done as if the fleet finds us out.”
“You just offered them Starbase.”
“We have to look like we’re helping. In a way that will convince them while showing the Guardships nothing. That’s why I offered. It’s what they’d expect of a commercial enterprise, where the only god is profit. The rest I threw in because they wouldn’t believe it if I said we were rooting for them. They know what we think of them. The ideal strategy would be to help but in some way that would take a long time. They’d keep quiet while the Guardships ate them up.”