L Modesitt - Empress of Eternity

"Your request for equipment confirmed, among some, that more lies within the great canal than you have reported. They are also convinced that you are unlikely to turn that information over to them."

"If they?re so convinced of that, why haven?t they just appeared at the station and demanded that I turn over all my research?"

"Besides the fact that it would represent overriding the authority of the Minister of Science? Or that it would require a written order of either the Executive Administrator or the Minister of Protective Services?"

"Which the Council or the Judiciary might well overturn."

"The Council could be finessed, with the proper timing. The simpler answer might well be that they don?t believe you will turn over what they wish. Or that you could be forced to do so. It?s rumored that you?re an Indurate Master."

"So that I can?t be mentally coerced? If I were, and there?s certainly no evidence of that, it still wouldn?t mean I couldn?t be killed or otherwise…neutralized."

"Your existence, or lack thereof, is of little concern. The knowledge you might possibly recover is of great concern." Ashauer shrugged. "All men have their weaknesses, and you know yours. Mine, as you know, has always been my vanity. I did think that it might be wise for me to suggest that those few matters that surround you and your work are receiving more scrutiny than might be otherwise obvious to you…since you have not been in Caelaarn that recently."

"I do appreciate your concern." Maertyn paused, letting the silence draw out.

"Oh…it?s nothing personal, Maertyn. I?m certain you understand that."

Maertyn did. The Executive Administrator of the Caelaaran Unity-the most honorable Estafn D?Onfrio-did not wish that whatever Maertyn might discover should fall into the hands of the Gaerda, but he also didn?t want the struggle becoming public, not with unrest in both Galawon and Occidenta. That also suggested that Minister Hlaansk had other agendas…and other supporters that neither the EA nor Minister of Protective Services Tauzn wished to cross. And all of that left Maertyn very much alone-and that was before he?d discovered something that everyone thought he would. I would that I had their confidence in my capabilities.

"It?s never personal to others, Ashauer, but it?s always personal to those it affects, and yet through the ages, men have persisted in insisting that actions adverse to others are not personal."

Ashauer laughed. "You do retain a philosophical bent, Maertyn."

"It?s the best way of viewing government. You should know that." Maertyn offered a brief chuckle in return.

Ashauer nodded, but did not say more, and in a few minutes, the vehicle came to a silent and gliding stop. Maertyn glanced through the glassine side window toward the gates that blocked the entrance to the front courtyard of his town home.

"I wouldn?t worry yet," said Ashauer. "No one would want anything to happen to you now."

"I do appreciate your concern. Thank you for the transportation."

"You?re most welcome."

Maertyn opened the car door and slipped out, then closed it, offering a polite smile to Ashauer before the vehicle eased away in the twilight.

He glanced up at the Selene Ring, somehow less bright over Caelaarn, then back at the house. The three-story town dwelling was on the hillside overlooking the greenbelt, with the front gates on the perimeter road where Maertyn had alighted. The vehicle gates were at the west end of the property. He stepped toward the iron grille and tapped the combination into the security pad, then let his fingers rest on the sensor. The gates recessed to let him step into the brick-walled courtyard, then closed behind him. The exterior biowood panels of the house were a deep green, except for those framing the corners, which were dark gray, as were the window casements and door frames. The front of the house was twenty yards wide, roughly as wide as the canal station, with a centered main entry a mere two steps above the antique sand brick walk that led from the gates. Maertyn?s boots clicked slightly on the bricks.

As he stepped under the entry portico roof, the door opened, held by a muscular figure in black trousers and a deep green jacket.

"Lord Maertyn, welcome home." The man bowed slightly, then stepped back

"Thank you, Rhesten." Maertyn smiled. "It?s good to be here." Safely.

Rhesten closed the door and turned to face Maertyn. "Will you require dining, sir?"

"I?ll have a light supper in the study. Just bring it in when it?s ready."

"Yes, sir."

"Thank you."

Maertyn walked through the modest two-story entry hall and took the second door on the left, into the study. The lights eased on as he closed the door, revealing the desk with the comfortable swivel behind it, the side windows, now blanked for the evening, and the settee flanked by two chairs, each with a now-concealed reading screen.

Stark-that had been how Maarlyna had always described it.

He shook his head. Simple, he would have said, but he never had, at first because it hadn?t mattered, and then, later, because it had mattered too much.

He set the shoulder bag on the narrow shelf to the left of the ebony panels that concealed the working screens, then turned to stand beside the wide and empty desk, a desk, for all its polished ebony finish, that felt ever more alien each time he returned.

As had doubtless always been the case, nothing was quite as it seemed on the surface, or perhaps it was better said that nothing was all that it seemed, either on the surface or beneath.

25 Quad 2471 R.E.

Eltyn stood to one side of the "window" in the upper chamber that served as Faelyna?s laboratory. After one glance, he did not look toward the corner that held her pallet bed. He tried not to shift his feet from one side to the other as she went through the checklist for the array of equipment centered on the modified and overpowered polariton generator/imager.

Estimate three minutes before initial probe. Faelyna made some adjustments that Eltyn could not follow.

Second time you've said three minutes. [irony]

You want me to focus unshielded PG/I on you? [humor]

Not possible…before I move. [wide grin]

Her response was a feminine snort.

What Faelyna had earlier hoped would be several hours, or less than a day, had turned into two days and then three, before she had judged that the equipment was properly set and positioned. Then she had discovered a need for an additional modification. While she had worked on that, Eltyn had made some changes to the station equipment and power system, particularly in the reporting monitors-in reaction to the totally irrational periodic demands for station power reductions. He?d also isolate-blocked the internal net against probes from outside, but in a way that simply indicated that the entire comm system had been shut down except for emergency comm. All incoming probes and messages were quarantined so that he could view and analyze them without contaminating or compromising the station systems.

Two minutes.

Ready. Eltyn looked at her, trying to maintain a calm and unworried expression while not showing any sign of what he had begun to feel about her. To do otherwise would be unRuchelike.

The command comm level seared a white priority pulse across all CommNet channels. URGENT! URGENT! All stations! Mandatory reduction of power usage to minimum.Discontinue all routine and [low] priority usage. Nonessential energy usage will result indisciplinary action…

Faelyna glanced at Eltyn.

Eltyn triggered the shield-system he?d developed in reaction to the power hysteria coming from Hururia, a hysteria he suspected was being generated by the RF fanatics among The Fifty. ????? questioned Faelyna.