L Modesitt - Empress of Eternity

He hoped that the fighting didn?t get that close and personal, but the way the two officers were talking, it was all too likely.

He moved to the second emergency lighting console.

When the tube-train slowed to a halt, the compartment speaker announced, "Arrival in Caelaarn. You are on platform twelve, second level. All passengers please exit."

Maertyn rose, picked up the bag, slipped the strap over his shoulder, and opened the compartment door.

"Have a pleasant day in Caelaarn, Lord Maertyn," the car speaker offered politely.

He did not respond, knowing that the system would merely offer another programmed response.

A dark-haired woman of indeterminate age, wearing the solid blue trousers and jacket of a senior Ministry functionary, opened the door to the next compartment as Maertyn neared, but she immediately paused. "You first, Lord."

Maertyn smiled politely. "I?m in no hurry. Please…" He gestured for her to proceed.

After a moment, she did, and he followed her at a discreet distance to the train car door and then through it. As in Daelmar, the platform was of deep gray, lit indirectly. Unlike Daelmar, the living surface showed signs of wear in places, and it was far from empty, with two hundred or so passengers slipping quietly from the long cyclindrical cars and walking swiftly toward the moving ramp that led up to the main concourse. As befitted the world capital, the tube-train station in Caelaarn was substantial, with two levels of twenty platforms each. The indirect lighting was bright enough to banish shadows, but not intense enough to create reflections off the brushed pewter-like finish of the cars of the tube-trains and the walls and fixtures of the station.

As he let the ramp carry him upward, Maertyn pushed aside his worries about Maarlyna, if with difficulty, and concentrated on what lay ahead of him, and not a moment too soon, because when he reached the top of the ramp and stepped out onto the pale golden surface of the main concourse, he caught sight of a slender older man, attired in maroon and silver-gray, but in the more formal maroon jacket over silver-gray shirt and trousers, with a simple black cravat.

Seeing the familiar figure of Ashauer standing between two Ministry guards-in khaki singlesuits with black belts and boots-Maertyn couldn?t help thinking, Lord AshauerS'Detemer, to be precise, conveying so effectively polite and measured menace.

Ashauer stepped forward, smiling warmly. "Maertyn!"

Maertyn noted that the other still wore the small pewter pin of the Transport Ministry on the thin lapel of his jacket, indicating that the older lord continued to hold a position as Deputy Assistant Minister for Regional Liaison. Doubtless Ashauer also kept up his reputation as a bit of a gambler and wastrel, all of which served as a cover for his real position-what amounted to the director of lordly intelligence operations for Executive Administrator of the Unity…and probably far more than that, Maertyn suspected.

"Ashauer. You?re looking as dapper as ever." Maertyn offered a rueful smile. "I hadn?t expected an escort."

"How could we not provide an escort to one of the few hopes remaining to the Unity?"

Ashauer added cheerfully, "Minister Hlaansk has been most vocal in singing your praises." He turned and began to walk toward the high pewter arch that led to the transit corridors. "He has not been restrained in the breadth of those praises."

"He sings everyone?s praises," replied Maertyn with a soft laugh, walking beside Ashauer, but not too closely. "That?s one reason why he?s effective in dealing with scientists."

"Ah…but you?re the only lord in our generation to also be a fully qualified scientist, and that does make you special."

"Different, perhaps, but hardly special."

"Special enough that he would not want you taking public transit to your town home. That is where you?re headed this evening, is it not?"

"It is indeed, but I doubt that Minister Hlaansk would trouble himself over it. Others might, as you well know, but why would any concern themselves with the obscure research of an even more obscure lord? Or his brief visit to Caelaarn?"

"You have always been modest, Maertyn. I?ve never been certain whether it was the modesty of arrogance or the arrogance of modesty." Ashauer led the way through the arch and past the local tube transit corridor to the covered portico over the small circular drive of the northernmost transport corridor.

Two vehicles were waiting there, the first a two-seat patrol vehicle with a single hard-faced patroller standing beside it, her dark uniform emphasizing the angularity of her face. She nodded politely but not effusively as the two lords passed and made their way to the second personal transit car, its gleaming finish the dark blue solar-metallic of the Transport Ministry. It was designed to hold but four, the driver/guard and another guard in front, and two in the shielded rear, with a small boot for luggage. The locks clicked open as the guard touched the door plate.

Knowing that Ashauer would insist he enter first, Maertyn took the cushioned seat behind the driver, noting as he did that the privacy barrier was up. Ashauer took the other seat.

"You would not have heard that there is dissension in some outlying districts," offered the older lord once the car pulled away from the station.

"Doubtless somewhere in Galawon or and especially in Saenblaed."

Ashauer nodded. "And in places in Occidenta."

"What has the Gaerda found as the reasons for such unrest?"

"The Gaerda? How would a mere Transport functionary know their judgments?"

Maertyn smiled faintly. "How indeed?"

After a moment of silence, Ashauer said conversationally, as quietly as if idly musing about the regularity of the tube-train schedules, "There are reasons why you?ve been recalled to the capital, Maertyn, and not merely for a routine report or because a few ultra-capitalists protest the science behind Unity regulations."

"Besides my research? Or besides my charms and non ex is tent wealth?"

"You?re not so poor as you have let others believe. The Gaerda-rather Gaerda chief Caellins-tasked the Finance Ministry with assessing the holdings of all lords currently serving in the government. Yours are far from the least substantial. They are, however, among the most, shall we say, dispersed, so much so that even the Finance Ministry reported it was unlikely that all of them had been identified."

"The Finance Ministry does me far too much credit."

"Far too little it would appear. Now…would you like to know why it was suggested to Minister Hlaansk that he request a report in person from you? Or rather that he remind you to come to Caelaarn to make your report in person?"

"I would be most interested in knowing that." Not that I'll trust most of what you'reabout to impart.

"Knowing you, I?m certain you?ll be skeptical, but there are those who would prefer that you succeed in your research. The leadership of the Gaerda is not among them. Any indication of progress on your part will require more attention be paid to you, and, obviously, will leave fewer resources and emphasis on the scrutiny of others. Your recent request for more equipment suggested that your research might actually result in useful information."

"As opposed to being a mere cover for a sabbatical for a lord who dabbles in research?

Even so, why would our vaunted security forces be interested in my research or even in my nonexistence? I certainly pose no threat to them." Ashauer?s words and presence definitely confirmed, in Maertyn?s mind, that the Executive Administrator of the Unity, to whom Ashauer reported, assuredly directly, was engaged in a struggle of some sort with the Minister of Protective Services, who also controlled the Gaerda."