Страница 220 из 243
f) A major new discovery of non-human intelligence might destabilize the situation I left, and might come at any time. I urge you press for expansion in safe areas and for necessary precaution against hostile contact. We do not know our time limits and we are scarcely stable enough in my time to deal with that eventuality.
g) There may be major divergences from my policies inside Reseune, and there exists the chance that you have either made personal enemies on-staff or that you are perceived as standing for policies others oppose.
h) A major breakdown could occur within a designed azi population, or there may be major difficulties in CIT-azi integrations within a given population. I hope this does not come to pass, but my best estimate of a problem area would be Pan-Paris, where economic constraints and military retirees may pose hardships: next most likely: Novgorod, in the third generation . . . where the old rebel ethos of the founders of Union may well find difficulty mixing with the Constitution-venerating descendants of the wartime worker-azi, and where population pressures and Cyteen's ability to terraform new habitat on that site may run a narrow race indeed.
I hope time has proven me wrong in some of these things.
But I urge you to study these situations and to prepare responses to them, before you make any move on your own.
Avoid precipitate action: by this I mean, don't be too quick to take what you're not ready for; don't be so late that you have to move hastily and without adequate groundwork.
Power of any kind lays heavy responsibility on you; and it changes your friends as it changes the way your friends regard you. Do not be naive in this regard. Do not assume. Do not overburden your friends with too much trust.
Above all remember what I said in the begi
NewsScan shows mention of you: 3 articles in last 3 months.
Mention of Giraud Nye: 189 articles in last 3 months.
Mention of Mikhail Corain: 276 articles in last 3 months.
Mention of Reseune: 597 articles in last 3 months.
Mention of Paxers: 1058 articles in last 3 months.
Continue?
AE2: Base One, give me the nature, location, and time of Ari senior's last entry into the House system.
B/1: Working.
Entry by TransSlate; 1004A, 2404: 10/22: 1808.
AE2: Give me the location and time of Ari senior's death.
B/1: Working.
1004A.
Autopsy ruling: 2404: 10/22: 1800 to 1830 approximate.
AE2: 1004A is the cold lab in Wing One basement. Correct?
B/1: Correct.
AE2: Who else has accessed this information?
B/1: No prior access.
AE2: Replay entry.
B/1: Working.
Order: Security 10: Com interrupt: Jordan Warrick, all outgoing calls. Claim malfunction. Order good until canceled.
AE2: Base One, is that the last entry from Ari from any source?
B/1: Working.
Affirmative.
AE2: Base One, at what time did Jordan Warrick enter Wing One basement security door on 10/22, 2404?
B/1: Working.
Wing One basement security door coded 14. Jordan Warrick's key accessed D14 at 1743 hours, that date.
AE2: Departure, same visit?
B/1: 1808 hours, that date: duration of visit: 25 minutes. . . .
AE2: Record current session to Personal Archive. Give me the full transcript, Autopsy, Ariane Emory; all records, Jordan Warrick, keyword: Emory, keyword: trial; keyword: murder; keyword, hearings; keyword: Council; keyword: investigation.
CHAPTER 14
i
"The first bill on the agenda is number 6789, for the Bureau of Trade," Nasir Harad said, "Ludmilla deFranco, Simon Jacques co-sponsors, proposing restructuring of the Pan-Paris credit system. Call for debate."
"Citizens," Mikhail Corain said, lifting his hand. "For the bill."
"Finance," Chavez said. "For the bill."
"Move to forgo debate," Harogo said, "in the absence of opposition."
Corain cast a look down the table, toward Nye, who had reached for his water glass.
It was a bargain, the time-saving sort. The acquiescence of the Expansionists in the move designed to take pressure off the ailing Pan-Paris central bank, the promise of military contracts, the private assurance that Reseune would grant more time on the considerable sum Pan-Paris owed—of course it would: Pan-Paris was Lao's central constituency and the bill was the first step in a long-proposed settlement on the Wyatt's Paradise-Pan-Paris loop that called for a fusion-powered station at Maro
There were four bills lined up, Expansionists falling all over themselves after decades of opposition, finally diverting funds from the slow construction of Hope to the more immediate difficulties of home space and a trade loop that had gotten, since the War, damnably short of exportable commodities.
Major construction, finally, beyond the rebuilding of stations damaged in Azov's desperate push in the last stages of the War; beyond the endless restructurings of debt and adjustments necessary when the merchanters associated into Alliance and left Union banks holding enormous debt.
Seventy years later, a policy shift to save that trade loop became possible only because the special interests that had blocked it suddenly discovered there was nothing left to do.
"Move to suspend debate," Harad said in his usual mutter. "Second?"
"Second," Corain said.
"Call for the vote."
A clatter from down the table. Nye had knocked the water glass over his papers, and sat there—sat there, with the water ru
Then Corain's heart ticked over a beat, a moment of alarm as he saw the imminent collapse, as Lao, next to Nye, rose in an attempt to hold him, as of a sudden everyone was moving, including the aides.
But Giraud Nye was slumping down onto the papers, sliding from his chair, completely limp as the azi Abban shoved Lao aside and caught Nye in his fall between the seats.
The Council, the aides, everyone broke into tumult, and Corain's heart was hammering. "Get Medical," he ordered Dellarosa, ordered whoever would go, while Abban had Nye on the floor, his collar open, applying CPR with methodical precision.
It was quiet then, except the aides slipping from the chamber—strange that no one moved, everyone seemed in a state of shock, except a junior aide offering to spell the azi.
Medical arrived, ru
Alive, Corain thought, shaken: he could not understand his own reaction, or why he was trembling when Nasir Harad, still standing, brought the gavel down on Chairman's discretion for an emergency recess.
No one moved to leave for a moment. Centrists and Expansionists looked at each other in a land of vague, human shock, for about a half a hundred heartbeats.
Then Simon Jacques gathered up his papers, and others did, and Corain signaled to his own remaining aides.