Alastair Reynolds - Poseidon's Wake

‘What would be the point? You know my past. But this is a starship full of scientists and technicians.’

‘Your point?’ Vasin asked.

‘I doubt I’m the only one aboard who has come into close contact with nanomachines. Have you investigated everyone to the same extent you have me? What about the medical team?’

‘He has a point,’ Dr Nhamedjo said placidly. ‘I have worked with small quantities of medical nanomachinery — so have the other members of my team.’

‘Could you have reprogrammed the Knowledge Room?’ Vasin asked.

His handsome features looked rueful. ‘For about five minutes, when I was just out of medical school.’

‘You do yourself a disservice,’ Vasin said, meeting his expression with a smile of her own. ‘The main point, though, is that very few of us ever need to enter the second sphere — or have the means to do so.’

‘Mine can’t have been the only forensic traces you found in that sphere,’ Grave said. ‘Or are you saying none of your technicians ever go in there?’

There was a reasonableness to his objections, but also a pragmatic acceptance that his fate was already sealed. He looked broken, his aspirations in tatters — a man going through the motions of justice, knowing he could offer no persuasive argument.

‘Did you meet Mposi?’ Vasin asked.

‘On several occasions.’

‘Why?’

‘We wished to speak. I had some concerns, and I hoped to share them with him.’

‘Were these vague concerns about a threat?’

‘I can’t help that they were vague. It was my job to find out more information — to safeguard both the expedition and the integrity of the Second Chance delegation. Had Mposi and I located a tangible threat, we would have brought our concerns to you directly. In the absence of anything concrete, neither of us wished to trouble you.’

‘I keep hearing about people not wanting to trouble me,’ Vasin said ruefully. ‘I wish they’d let me decide for myself. Being troubled is what I’m here for.’

‘You have spoken to Crucible. Presumably they have verified Mposi’s account of things?’ Grave asked.

‘Mposi was warned about a possible sabotage effort,’ Vasin said. ‘But as far as we know, you could have been the saboteur he was warned about.’ Her tone sharpened. ‘Why did you kill him?’

‘I didn’t.’

‘Ah, this missed rendezvous. What was the point of it?’

‘We’d arranged to meet and explore the second sphere together. Mposi knew how to enter secure areas. He’d already shown me how to alter my bangle to achieve the same settings, but I still needed his help to get into the drive section. When I arrived there, though, Mposi was late. Or rather, now I think he was early — that he arrived before me and someone else was already there. I saw signs of disturbance — the blood you found.’

‘You’re saying Mposi had already been attacked, perhaps even killed, by the time you arrived?’

‘I only know that he wasn’t there. I have no direct knowledge of what happened to him after that, except that you say he was murdered and his body placed in the well.’ Grave paused, then asked with a sudden and plausible innocence: ‘You asked me about my history with nanomachines. Do you honestly think I had the expertise to do that thing to Mposi?’

‘Didn’t you?’ Vasin asked. ‘The expertise is specific, but you could have easily acquired those skills on the Malabar. Why he agreed to meet you alone, I don’t know. Regardless, you knocked him out, maybe even killed him — we only have half of his body to examine — and dragged him to the cargo elevator. You took him to the Knowledge Room, reprogrammed the nanomachines… and hoped that would buy you enough time to cover your tracks.’

‘I did all that?’ Grave looked impressed with himself. ‘You overestimate my ability to improvise, Captain.’

‘If we were down to our last gram of fuel, our final rations,’ Vasin said, ‘I might have a case for execution — or at least for throwing you out of an airlock. As it happens, neither fuel nor rations are a concern. Besides, Mposi would not have approved. Given that — and the uncertain legal standing of this trial — I only have one option. You’ve offered a defence, but it cannot be corroborated. On the other hand, you had the opportunity, the technical means and — as a conservative Second Chancer — a plausible motive.’

‘Case closed, then.’

‘No — case still open, but looking increasingly doubtful for you. You may or may not be guilty — I don’t have the evidence to decide — but I can’t run the risk of you doing further harm. You will be committed to skipover, Grave. Put on ice for the entire duration of the expedition.’

Dr Nhamedjo spoke up sharply. ‘I won’t be party to that.’

Vasin turned to him. ‘I’m sorry, Doctor?’

‘Regardless of what we might think of Grave, this doesn’t begin to satisfy his rights as a member of this expedition. And I won’t go along with some execution-by-proxy—’

Vasin spoke quietly, but she had no need to raise her voice to sound authoritative. ‘It’s not an execution, Doctor — it’s clemency. I’m doing him a kindness by not presuming his guilt. I’d prefer you to comply with this decision, but the truth is I don’t need you to. Under emergency provisions, any member of this crew is entitled to assist another into skipover.’

‘Only when the medical staff are indisposed!’

‘Or unable to discharge their duties, which at this point amounts to much the same thing. I’m sorry to state it so plainly, Saturnin — we are friends, and I’ve no desire to overrule you — but Grave will be going into skipover with or without your assistance. Would you rather stand by and watch one of us clumsily attempt to do your own work for you?’

‘Of course not,’ Nhamedjo said, with a surliness at odds with his pleasant, accommodating features.

‘Perhaps I made a mistake,’ Grave said. ‘Has it occurred to you that I achieved nothing by supposedly murdering Mposi?’

‘You acted carelessly,’ Vasin answered. ‘That isn’t my concern.’

‘It should be. I am not his murderer. Someone else is. You’ve found your demolition charges — good for you. Maybe they were part of a plot to blow up the ship, as you suspect. But if the real killer is still active, they’ll simply move on to a different weapon.’

‘Such as?’

‘I wish I knew. If I did, I’d be the first to tell you.’

Goma woke after the trial to find a transmission waiting for her from Ndege. She had been expecting such a thing, knowing that her mother had been informed of Mposi’s death through at least two channels. First there had been a personal communication from Gandhari Vasin, sharing the news and expressing her deep regret that this dreadful thing had happened to such a respected and well-liked figure. Vasin had allowed Goma to see the transmission before she sent it, and not long after that she had composed her own message to Ndege.

Vasin had done her a kindness, in that it did not fall to Goma to break the bad news. She had only to express her sadness and offer her condolences. It was bad enough that her uncle had been killed, but it was much worse for Ndege, losing her brother. Goma had only known him for the short span of her own life; Ndege and Mposi had been witness to centuries.

Both had separated knowing that a reunion was vanishingly unlikely, but neither had expected to learn of the other’s death. Mposi might have died before the expedition reached its destination, but by the time the news of his passing reached Crucible, Ndege would probably not be alive to receive it. Similarly, if Ndege were to die in the next few decades, news of it could not possibly reach the expedition for many decades to come.