L Modesitt - Empress of Eternity

"Not now. I do have some biotherm ready."

"Save it."

"In a while I?ll need to think about fixing lunch." Duhyle moved to the second stool and settled onto it.

Helkyria turned her attention to her assembled devices.

Outside the station, the security forces patrolled, watched, and waited.

After his short morning meeting with the minister, Maertyn walked to the front of the building toward the small office he retained in the Environment Research Subministry. He stopped outside the office of the assistant minister.

"Is Josef in, Marcent?"

The young-faced aide looked up from his console. "The assistant minister will be out until the twenty-third. He?s touring all the science universities on Conuno that receive Unity Science Grants-the environmental ones."

"Who?s going to tour the science universities in Occidenta?"

"There are only two that receive grants there."

Maertyn knew that, but he?d asked the question to make a point.

"Or Galawon?" Maertyn persisted gently.

Marcent did not reply for a moment, then said, "Oh…sir. Assistant Minister Cennen said that you were to use his office while you were here."

"That was kind of him…or has he given mine to one of his…proteges?" "Protege" was a polite term for the string of unusually handsome male graduate students on whom Josef lavished special attention…and doubtless more.

"Only until you return permanently, sir. He…well…you don?t return to Caelaarn that often these days."

"That?s true." Maertyn smiled politely, then made his way into the assistant minister?s office, a space roughly six yards by eight, overlooking the gardens on the east side of the building. It held a desk with full built-in comm capabilities and a conference table that could be used as either another desk or as part of a remote, full visual and sound, conference facility.

Josef?s absence and the effective reassignment of Maertyn?s office strongly suggested that Assistant Minister Cennen did not believe that one Lord Maertyn S?Eidolon would be returning to his previous position, and that the good assistant minister did not wish to be linked at all closely to Maertyn.

"Not surprising," he murmured to himself as he settled himself at the small conference table by the window. He really didn?t want to use Cennen?s desk, and he didn?t have to in order to review his presentation, or even to answer any comms that might come his way. He doubted there would be many, and certainly not before all his peers evaluated what happened at his briefing.

He opened the folder. What was so obvious that he had forgotten to explain it? What could he present more effectively? Those questions always helped refine a presentation.

Just before midday, there was a rap on the door, which Maertyn had left slightly ajar. He looked up to see Amirella Lihusan, easily recognizable for her straight gray hair, a result of a gene that couldn?t be modified because it was linked to another defensive gene whose absence would have created an unacceptable risk of a score of different carcinomas or whose modification was impractical, if not impossible. "Amirella!" He rose from the conference table.

"Would you like to join me for lunch?" She smiled. "Or, more properly, might I join you so that we could eat in the junior ministers? dining room?"

"You?re of deputy assistant minister rank…"

"But not with the title. Besides, it sounds better if I can tell everyone you asked me."

"You?re incorrigible." He walked to the door and stepped out to join her.

"With what I do, how else could I be?"

"I am hungry."

"Good."

They walked out of the assistant minister?s suite and into the corridor that led to the ramp. Maertyn could sense Marcent?s eyes on his back.

The junior ministers? dining salon was located on the second level in the middle of the front section of the building, overlooking both the narrow line of greenery and the car park.

"Lord Maertyn…it?s good to see you back," offered a woman in a dark gray and formfitting singlesuit.

"A corner booth, if you please, Cariena." Maertyn noted the increasing warmth of the hostess?s professional smile at the use of her name.

"I think we can manage that. This way…"

The two followed the hostess to the booth in the farthest window corner on the east. They had barely settled into the natural green leather of the booth when a server appeared.

"Might I get you something to drink?" Her smile was polite and solicitous.

"A glass of white shiraz," replied Amirella.

"Just iced tea, please, unsweetened," said Maertyn.

"The day?s menu is on the sheets. I?ll be back with your drinks and take your selections."

Maertyn nodded and picked up the single thin flexible sheet and scanned the options. Every morning, each sheet was fed through the repermer with the new menu. Most sheets lasted close to a year before they had to be recycled.

"What will you have?" he asked.

"The quail. You?"

"The pheasant. The biologics up north are mostly limited to lamb and beef and chicken. Not enough people to support a full-scale bio-replication facility. I also like the fact that the wild rice is actually marsh-grown."

"It?s a bit…wild…for me."

The server eased up to the table and set the goblet of clear wine before Amirella and the tall glass of tea before Maertyn. Amirella ordered first, then Maertyn, and in moments they were alone at the table again.

"How have things been with you?" asked Maertyn.

"In what I do very little changes." She smiled mischievously. "I understand you?re giving a presentation on your research on the canal to all those in the Ministry-at the level of deputy assistant minister and above. All those in science and not staff positions, that is."

"Except for my own superior. He?s out touring the science universities in south Conuno."

"Just far enough away to be unavailable and close enough to return in a hurry, if necessary."

"You?d think that of the honorable Josef Cennen?"

"I think worse of him than I?ll ever say. What would you say?"

"I?d say that his behavior is excessively prudent."

Amirella laughed.

Maertyn couldn?t help smiling.

"How?s Maarlyna?"

"Better. The quiet is good for her. She?s not looking forward to returning to Caelaarn. I think she?s counting the days with trepidation."

"I can understand that," Amirella said sympathetically, then paused before going on.

"What can you tell me about your research? In simple terms. I?m a numbers person, not a researcher."

"I noted from temperature reports and scattered observations that the temperature around the canal was never as extreme as in the adjoining areas. Also, the temperature of the stone never varies no matter how much sun strikes it or how much ice piles on the north side-except it doesn?t stay piled there. It builds up right behind it and then topples over it and into the water. In simple terms, I?m trying to find out why."

"Are you having much success?"

"I?ve found out a few new things about the canal. Some suggest possibilities, but I haven?t yet figured out how to devise the follow-on experiments to investigate or quantify them."

"That?s very cautious…"

At that moment, the server arrived with their meals.

Over the rest of lunch Maertyn steered the conversation away from specifics, and Amirella was kind enough not to object. They went their separate ways from the salon, and Maertyn wondered exactly why she?d asked for him to take her to lunch. He?d have to keep that in mind while he was in Caelaarn.

All too soon, it approached two in the afternoon, and Maertyn made his way back to the minister?s conference room with the long table that could seat close to thirty. When he entered, he smiled politely as he tallied those present-a "mere" sixteen, without Hlaansk.