“They’ll keep at it. The research teams at Jupiter have done no better. I know that Govcentral have established a similar
project; and no doubt the Kulu Kingdom will be equally industrious.”
“I think in this instance they might all even be persuaded to cooperate,” Samual Aleksandrovich mused. “I’ll mention it during
my presidential briefing, it’ll give Olton something to concentrate on.”
Lalwani shifted around in her chair, leaning forwards slightly as if she was discomforted. “The one piece of genuinely good
news is that we believe Alkad Mzu has been sighted.”
“Praise the Lord. Where?”
“The Dorados. Which lends a considerable degree of weight to the report. That’s where seventy per cent of the Garissan refugees
finished up. There is a small underground movement there. She’ll probably try to contact them. We infiltrated them decades
ago, so there shouldn’t be any problem.”
Samual Aleksandrovich gave his intelligence chief a pensive stare. He had always been able to rely on her utterly. The height
of the stakes these days, though, were breaking apart all the old allegiances. Damn Mzu’s device, he thought, the alleged
potency of the thing even gnaws at trust. “Which ‘we’ is that, Lalwani?” he asked quietly.
“Both. Most intelligence agencies have assets in the underground.”
“That’s not quite what I meant.”
“I know. It’s going to be down to the agents on the ground, and who reaches her first. For me personally, Edenist acquisition
would not be an unwelcome outcome. I know we won’t abuse the position. If CNIS obtains her, then as admiral of the service
I will follow whatever orders the Assembly’s Security Commission delivers concerning her disposal. Kulu and the others could
give us a problem, though.”
“Yes. What do the Edenists propose to do if you get her?”
“Our Consensus recommends zero-tau storage. That way she will be available should the Confederation ever face an external
threat which needs something as powerful as the Alchemist to defend it.”
“That seems a logical course. I wonder if the Alchemist could help us against the possessed?”
“Supposedly, it’s a weapon of enormous destructive power. If that’s true, then like every weapon we have in our arsenal today,
it will be utterly ineffective against the possessed.”
“You’re right of course. Unfortunately. So I suppose we are going to have to depend on Dr Gilmore and his ilk for a solution.”
And I wish I had the confidence I should have in him. Saviour-to-be is a terrible burden for anyone to carry around.
• • •
It was the one sight Lord Kelman Mountjoy had never expected to see. His job had taken him to countless star systems; he had
stood on a beach to watch a binary dawn over the sea, admired Earth’s astonishing O’Neill Halo from a million kilometres above
the north pole, enjoyed lavish hospitality in the most exotic locations. But as Kulu’s foreign minister, Jupiter was always
destined to be
verboten
.
Now, though, he accessed the battle cruiser’s sensor suite throughout the entire approach phase. The starship was accelerating
at one and a half gees, carrying them down towards the five-hundred-and-fifty-thousand-kilometre orbital band occupied by
the Jovian habitats. Two armed void-hawks from the Jovian defence fleet were escorting the warship in. Just a precaution,
Astor had assured them. Kelman had accepted gracefully, though most of the Royal Navy officers were less charitable.
The habitat Azara was looming large ahead of them, a circular spaceport disk extending out of its northern endcap. Although
Edenism didn’t have a capital, Azara played host to all of the foreign diplomatic missions. Even the Kingdom maintained an
embassy at Jupiter.
“I still can’t get used to the scale here,” Kelman confessed as the acceleration began to fluctuate. Their approach was in
its final stages, the battle cruiser flowing through the thick traffic lanes of inter-orbit ships towards the spaceport. “Whenever
we build anything large it always seems so ugly. Of course, technically the Kingdom does own one bitek habitat.”
“I thought Tranquillity was independent,” Ralph Hiltch said.
“Great-grandfather Lukas granted its title to Michael as an independent duchy,” Prince Collis said affably. “So, strictly
speaking, in Kulu law, my father is still its sovereign. But I’d hate to try and argue the case in court.”
“I didn’t know,” Ralph said.
“Oh, yes. I’m quite the amateur expert on the situation,” Prince Collis said. “I’m afraid we do all harbour a rather baroque
interest in Cousin Ione and her fiefdom. All of my siblings access the official file on Tranquillity at some time while we’re
growing up. It’s fascinating.” Alastair II’s youngest child smiled whimsically. “I almost wish I’d been sent with that delegation
instead of Prince Noton. No offence,” he added for Astor’s benefit.
“Your Highness,” the Edenist ambassador murmured. “This would seem to be the time for breaking taboos.”
“Indeed. And I shall do my best to throw off my childhood prejudices. But it will be hard. I’m not accustomed to the notion
of the Kingdom being dependent on anyone.”
Ralph looked across the small lounge. All of the acceleration couches had tilted down from the horizontal, transforming into
oversized armchairs. Ambassador Astor lay back bonelessly in his, a politely courteous expression on his face, as always.
Ralph had no idea how he maintained it without the benefit of neural nanonics.
“Attempting to remedy a situation not of your making is hardly dishonourable, Your Highness.”
“Oh, Ralph, do stop blaming yourself for Ombey,” Kel-man Mountjoy protested. “Everyone thinks you’ve done a superb job so
far. Even the King, which makes it official. Right, Collis?”
“Father thinks very highly of you, Mr Hiltch,” the Prince confirmed. “I dare say you’ll be lumbered with a title once this
is over.”
“In any case, I don’t believe this proposed alliance could be said to make the Kingdom dependent on us,” Astor said. “Liberating
the possessed of Mortonridge is both necessary and advantageous to everyone. And if, afterwards, we understand each other
a little better, then surely that’s for the best, too.”
Kelman exchanged an amused glance with Astor as Ralph Hiltch shuffled around in discomfort. For all that they came from totally
different cultures, he and the Edenist shared remarkably similar rationalities. Communication and understanding came swiftly
between them. It was a cause of growing dismay to Kelman that the freedom he’d enjoyed all his life, allowing him to develop
his intellect, was maintained by guardians such as Ralph and the navy, who could never share his more liberal outlook. Small
wonder, he thought, that history showed empires always rotted from the core outwards.
There were checks as soon as they docked. Brief almost-formalities; the inevitable test for static, confirmation that processors
worked in their presence; verifications which everybody had to comply with. Including the Prince. Ambassador Astor made sure
his own examination was a very public one. And Collis was charm personified to the two Edenists running sensors over him.
Azara’s administrator was waiting with a small official reception committee at the spaceport’s tube station. In most Edenist
habitats, the post of administrator was largely ceremonial; though in Azara’s case it had evolved into something approaching
Edenism’s foreign minister.
Quite a considerable crowd had assembled to see the delegation; mostly young, curious Edenists, and staff from the foreign
embassies.
A smiling Collis listened to the administrator’s short speech, replied with a few appropriate words, and said he was eager
to see the inside of a habitat. The whole group ignored the waiting tube carriage and walked out of the station.
Ralph had never been inside a habitat either. He stood on the lawn outside the tube station and stared along the cylindrical
landscape, mesmerized by the beauty of the sight. This was a lush, dynamic nature at its most majestic.
“Makes you wonder why we ever rejected bitek, doesn’t it?” Kelman said quietly.
“Yes, sir.”
The Prince was mingling among the crowd, smiling and shaking hands. Walkabouts were hardly a novelty for him, but this was
unplanned, and he didn’t have his usual retinue of ISA bodyguards, just a couple of dour-faced Royal Marines that everyone
ignored. He was clearly enjoying himself.
Kelman watched a couple of the girls kiss him, and grinned. “Well, he is a real live prince, after all. I don’t suppose they
get to meet very many of them around here.” He glanced up at the radiant axial light tube and the verdant arch of land overhead.
There was something distinctly unnerving about knowing the vast structure was alive, and looking right back at him, its huge
thoughts contemplating him. “I think I’m glad to be here, Ralph. And I think you had the right idea to ask for an alliance.
This society really has a frightening potential, I never actually appreciated that before. I always thought it would be they
who were the losers as a result of our foreign policy. I was wrong: no matter all the barriers and distance we throw up, they
won’t make the slightest difference to these people.”
“It’s too late to alter that now, sir. We’re free of their energy monopoly. And I’m not sorry about that.”
“No, Ralph, I don’t suppose you are. But there are more aspects to life than the purely materialistic. I think both our cultures
would benefit from stronger ties.”
“You could say the same about every star system in the
Confederation, sir.”
“So you could, Ralph, so you could.”
• • •
The second general Consensus within a month, and probably not the last within this year, it acknowledged wryly amid itself
as it formed.
The most unfortunate aspect of Lord Kelman Mountjoy’s request, Consensus decided, is its innate logic. Examination of the
war simulations presented to us by Ralph Hiltch show a very real possibility that the liberation of Mortonridge will succeed.
We acknowledge those among us who point out that this success is dependent on no further external factors being applied in
the favour of the possessed. So already we see the risk rising.
Our major problem derives from the projected victory being almost totally illusory. We have already concluded that physical
confrontation is not the answer to possession. Mortonridge simply confirms this. If it takes the combined strength of the
two most powerful cultures in the Confederation to liberate a mere two million people on a single small peninsula, then freeing
an entire planet by such a method clearly verges on the impossible.
Hopes across the Confederation would be raised to unreasonable heights by success at Mortonridge. Such hopes would be dangerous,
for they would unleash demands local politicians will be unable to refuse and equally unable to satisfy. However, for us to
refuse the Kingdom’s request would cast us in the role of villain. Lord Kelman Mountjoy has been ingenious in placing us in
this position.
“I would disagree,” Astor told the Consensus. “The Saldanas know as well as us that military intervention is not the final
answer. They too are presented with an enormously difficult dilemma by Mortonridge. As they are more susceptible to political
pressures, they are responding in the only way possible.
“I would also say this: By sending the King’s natural son with their delegation they are signalling the importance they attach
to our decision, and an acknowledgement of what must inevitably come to be should our answer favour them. If both of us commit
ourselves to the liberation there can be no return to the policies of yesterday. We will have established a strong bond of
trust with one of the most powerful cultures in the Confederation currently contrary to us. That is a factor we cannot afford
to ignore.”
Thank you Astor, Consensus replied, as always you speak well. In tribute of this, we acknowledge that the future must be safeguarded
in conjunction with the present. We are presented with an opportunity to engender a more peaceful and tolerant universe when
the present crisis is terminated.
Such a raison d’Être is not a wholly logical one to place ourselves on a war footing. Nor is the kindling of false hope which
will be the inevitable outcome.
However, there are times when people do need such a hope.
And to err is human. We embrace our humanity, complete with all those flaws. We will tell the Saldana Prince that until such
time that we can provide a permanent solution to possession he may have our support for this foolhardy venture.
• • •
After a five-day voyage,
Oenone
slipped out of its worm-hole terminus seventy thousand kilometres above Jobis, the Kiint homeworld. As soon as they had identified
themselves to the local traffic control (a franchise run by humans) and received permission to orbit, Syrinx and the voidhawk
immediately started to examine the triad moons.
The three moons orbited the planet’s Lagrange One point, four million kilometres in towards the F2 star. Equally sized at
just under eighteen hundred kilometres in diameter, they were also equally spaced seventy thousand kilometres apart, taking
a hundred and fifty hours to rotate about their common centre.
They were the anomaly which had attracted the attention of the first scoutship in 2356. The triad was an impossible formation,
too regular for nature to produce. Worse, the three moons massed exactly the same (give or take half a billion tonnes—a discrepancy
probably due to asteroid impacts). In other words, someone had built them.
It was to the scoutship captain’s credit she didn’t flee. But then fleeing was probably a null term when dealing with a race
powerful enough to construct artefacts on such a scale. Instead, she beamed a signal at the planet, asking permission to approach.
The Kiint said yes.
It was about the most forthcoming thing they ever did say. The Kiint had perfected reticence to an art form. They never discussed
their history, their language, or their culture.
As to the triad moons, they were an “old experiment,” whose nature was unspecified. No human ship had ever been permitted
to land on them, or even launch probes.