Mary Rosenblum - Horizons

“I was quite impressed with your son. He is charming, and reppresents a powerful future for the Zhen name in the universe. I am sure that his grandfather will share this opinion and it occurs to me that I should congratulate him on this continuation of his DNA into the future.” Ahni broke off, let the silence hum for several heartbeats. “I will speak with you before the Committee meets to judge Nilsson, Chairman of Dragon Home. I look forward to our mutual support. End message,” she instructed and stared at the delicately carved and painted screen that decorated the room. This was her only hope to save Dane. Translation: Make sure that Dane doesn’t become a scapegoat or I will take DNA evidence of your son to your father. Perfection was expected of a Zhen heir. Imperfections did not come into existence. The price Li Zhen ultimately exacted from her for this blackmail would be… significant.

DNA. Something nagged at her. It came to her suddenly, a suddden memory of Dane, returning with the proof she needed that Xai was alive. Check them , he had told her and he had not realized that the DNA belonged to her half brother. That should have been obvious to him. Frowning, Ahni searched for it in her email, found it, unopened, archived and waiting.

It was standard report, a direct readout from the sequencer, stamped and legal, titled ‘Huang, Ahni’, the second titled only ‘subject’. Ahni accessed the family archive, called up the birth registry for both herself and her brother, security stamped and encrypted. Curious, Ahni ran a comparison between Dane’s sequence and the sequence from her birth registry and from Xai’s.

Stared at the results, thinking furiously.

No wonder Dane had been puzzled. Ahni called up the very secure directory that contained the DNA sequence of all Elite members, alive and dead. It confirmed her guess.

Still numb, she tried Jira’s access again, this time got her widesmiling, “I have a message for you.” face.

Opened it. The media has forgotten Dane Nilsson, Jira’s image said. That is not by accident. I would suggest that his is a lost cause. I seriously doubt that sufficient media momentum could be built in time to motivate the Judiciary members. The crime he is accused of carries illogical, emotion-based baggage for a majority of the voting members.

Ahni accessed Security. “I need a skimmer to take me to the Council island. Private pickup, top priority.” There were advantages to being The Huang’s heir, she thought bleakly.

Security had the skimmer at the private dock within half an hour. Ahni sat silently as it whisked her across the ocean, her mind circling back on itself again and again as she watched the sky lighten.

In spite of the early hour, a private Courier met her on the Council Island, with a greeting from Li Zhen.

He was watching her. Ahni smiled bitterly. She still carried his beacon, hadn’t bothered to search it out and destroy it yet. The sun was just peeping above the horizon as he delivered her to the small but luxurious hotel suite occupied by Li Zhen.

He greeted her formally, his icy anger carefully restrained. Without speaking he poured tea.

Ahni shook her head. “I did not come as your guest. I meant to blackmail you with your son, as you surmised.” She faced him in the cluttered little European-furnished room. “I apologize.” And she bowed.

Felt surprise and disbelief dilute his anger.

“You would not throw away such a lever, Huang Ahni,” he said at last. “You are very concerned about this man, Nilsson.”

“I am tired of levers.” Ahni drew a slow breath. “Dane Nilsson does not deserve to die, and I cannot save him.” Bitterness twisted her lips. “I have a gift for you.” She handed him a data sphere. “You will find my DNA scan on it. You will discover that I am your sister.”

“What?” Li Zhen said softly.

“I am as much a created tool as was my brother. I was meant to be a lever. My mother found a better lever in the Gaiists. The exisstence of your son is between you and your father.” She bowed again.

Deeply. “I will not turn your son into a lever.” And she turned and left.

THE ACCOMMODATIONS ON WORLD COUNCIL ISLAND were a lot more luxurious than the cell upside, wherever it was the Council Security Forces had held him. Dane prowled the carpeted suite, gravity leaning on his shoulders. Carpeting, a small, limited refreshment center, and a video screen with a library of popular vid selections in English softened the space. The bedroom with its slidding door offered an illusion of privacy that didn’t fool him. The camera eyes were well disguised, but they were there. He made no effort to keep track of time, and the unchanging light didn’t help. Meals came and were taken away. Sometimes he ate, mostly he didn’t. The drag of the planet turned food to stone in his belly. He drank juice from the refreshment center. It said a lot about the security of this place, that they could be this generous.

A legal counsel had been appointed to his case. She arrived soon after a meal, dressed in a natural-fiber power suit, hair a crisp inch long, unselected-Scandinavian by the look of her fair skin, and pale hair. Had she expected a genetic countryman? He watched her take stock of his face and reconsider.

She tried hard. She had the formal charge and wanted him to read it and to retina that he had done so.

He refused. She laid out various strategies for defense with their pros and cons, and he told her he had no interest in any defense. Let the gene scan speak for itself, he told her. She spent a lot of time explaining in carefully simplified English just why this wasn’t a reasonable defense.

He let her work it out for herself… that he wasn’t reasonable. She finally left, after delivering dire warnings about his future, and he was impressed that she kept her simmering fury at his uncooperative behavior utterly buried behind an impassive demeanor.

Dane completed his circuit of the carpeted space, aware of the mass of bone and muscle with every step, pain twinging through his joints and up and down his limbs as ligaments took the strain of gravity’s pull. It had been a long time since he had lived in measurable gravity. Longer still since he had set foot on the planet.

He threw himself down on the bed. It offered a small relief from the endless drag of his leaden flesh. But it wasn’t the physical discomfort of the overtaxed ligaments and joints that bothered him. The sense of weight brought with it… memories. Memories of life in the refugee camps, and an older brother who seemed so old at twelve.

Dane levered himself to his feet and began to pace again, the discomfort providing a focus, a way to avoid the memories.

They would come back as dreams when he finally slept. Nobody had punished him here, or treated him with anything but the impersonal scrutiny of a professional. Nobody would annswer his questions either.

What was happening? How had the media portrayed the live link as Ahni faced her brother and the Gaiist? What had the reaction been?

He had to stop pacing again, give his aching body a break on the bed once more. What about Koi and his family? Had they already been rounded up and euthanized? Li Zhen would hand them over, if he had to. There was nothing he could do about it.

He got to his feet, pain preferable to the endless circle of his thoughts. Halted as the door whispered open. A man and a woman in CSF blue stepped into the room. “Put this on.” The man tossed him a folded wad of cloth, dyed the same brilliant chartreuse as the jumpsuit he was wearing.

Clean clothes?”What’s happening?” he asked, not really expecting them to answer.

”You’re scheduled for the Committee.”