Regenesis

“Big help,” she muttered to Base One, peevishly. Ya

“Base One, year of birth for Jordan Warrick.”

“ 2358.”

“Base One, year of birth for AK‑36.” But she knew it before Base One answered: calculated it for herself.

“ 2298.”

God, the last of the sublight ships hadn’t run their course when AK‑36 came into the world. Union had been just a collection of dissidents with a planet and a space station. The birthlabs and azi production were still in setup when AK‑36 had come out of them, and he’d gotten swept up into the military, because the fact Cyteen existed had just tipped the human species over into war. Kyle was old the way Ollie was old. His memory–

His memory must go way, way back. Jordan had been a baby himself when Kyle had first come back to Reseune after serving in the military. Jordan had grown up while Kyle was assisting Giraud. Kyle had been part of the scenery for whole lifetimes of people who themselves had actually died of rejuv failure and old age.

He’d still put up a hell of a fight for an old, old azi, and it was a wonder Florian hadn’t killed him when he’d had to shoot him full of paralytic. Suicide by non‑lethals, Catlin had said, and explained later that it was possible if you got hit the wrong way, or by more than one of them at once. And that was still an old, old, azi who’d taken all that to keep him down.

Tough as they came, Clever. Devious.

She said, “Base One, Alpha Detention.”

And when one of the agents on duty there answered, she responded: “Get a blood and tissue sample from AK‑36 and take it to Dr. Petros Ivanov in Hospital Admin. Say I want a compete workup, identity match, total, and I want it run on all AK‑3’s ever to come out of the labs, and I want a strict chain of custody on those samples.”

That was going to take time. Chemistry took time. They didn’t havethat much time, but it was a test overdue, if they were going to try to crack what Kyle haddone, and pin down who had had him do it.

She put in a call to Justin, meanwhile.

“ Ari?”

“Can you possibly call your father and set up both of you working on a file I’d like analyzed? I really need to ask you two some questions.”

A moment of silence on the other end. Long silence. Justin said, quietly, “I don’t think I can talk him into anything at the moment. I’m sorry. I take it this isn’t part of the lessons.”

“It’s not. It’s pretty important.”

“I think–I don’t know. He’s not speaking to me. I don’t think he’ll even open the door to me at the moment. You might actually get more out of him.”

That bad? she thought. “Is he speaking to Grant?”

“I don’t think so, honestly. He tossed us both out.”

“Well,” she said. “Thanks. Thanks all the same. Would you and Grant look over some files for me? I’m going to shoot it over to you. I really need it. I need it fast.”

“Sure. I’d be glad to.”

She sent AK‑36’s basic manual over, sent over AK‑36’s personal manual with it, which had Giraud’s a

She called Chi Prang, and had her run an analysis.

And she thought a moment, and then she did a little file manipulation, recast the date, created a new timestamp, and called up Jordan.

“Jordan? Jordan, this is Ari. I have a problem.”

Long, long wait.

“This is Paul AP, sera. Jordan’s–Jordan’s in the shower at the moment. Can I help?”

“Actually, yes. I’m going to send a file over. I want your opinion on it. Both of you, if Jordan wouldn’t mind. It’s a set with a problem. I’d really like an analysis.”

“You can send it over, sera, of course. I’ll advise him when he gets out of the shower.”

“It’s an alpha file. We’ve had a criminal act. It’s fairly urgent. Thank you so much, Paul.”

Name was erased. Date was erased. It was all couched as current work. Which it certainly was…in the emergency sense.

She leaned back in the chair, wishing the processes of chemistry ran a little faster or that the processes of polities ran a little slower.

A lot slower.

“Sera.” Catlin said. She had her handheld, but she stooped, picked up the wand from the table and popped the main display over to the news cha

Councillor Jacqueswas on camera. Jacques of Defense.

“After much deliberation,”Jacques said, “and thought.”The man had an unfortunate delivery. He never sounded altogether bright. “–I have reached a decision on the Proxy appointment, bearing in mind a sensitivity toward the Spurlin family, friends, and supporters, to whom we extend our most profound and heartfelt condolences…”

Get on with it, for God’s sake!

“…but we are constrained by considerations of the welfare of the nation to make an appointment representing the will of the electorate as expressed in the recent election. I am therefore retaining the seat, but will appoint as Proxy Councillor Vladislaw–”

“Good loving God!”

“–Khalid, who will serve starting immediately. This decision has been reached after, of course, considerable–”

“Cut it off.” she said to Catlin. The headache was back. And Catlin just stood there, seeming sure there would be some order to come. “I wish I could think of something,” she said to Catlin. “Thank you. Thank you for turning that on. I wanted to hear it. The man’s a fool.”

“He will likely die very soon,” Catlin said, the same assessment she’d reached, even contemplating it. “Khalid will succeed him. Am I right about the law?”

“Khalid got some hold on him.” she said. “Yes. You’re right about it. And he’ll last just long enough for the media attention to cool down about Spurlin, or until he objects to something Khalid does. Monitor Rafael. See if he’s getting any news from ReseuneSec in Novgorod or elsewhere.”

“Yes, sera,” Catlin said, set the wand on the table, and was off like a shot. Florian would be likewise engaged, might already be hauling in information via ReseuneSec–was probably doing that from the apartment security station: Wes and Marco were, she hoped, getting their rest: it was going to be a long twenty‑four, thirty‑six hours.

They’d just lost Defense as an ally and gained a bitter enemy. Ya

Meanwhile, having found out what she knew about their internal problem, she was, herself, stalled out and making noprogress on the ReseuneSec situation, and didn’t know if they had a greater threat inside Reseune or out. They’d taken in thirty‑odd alphas in the batch they’d recovered from the military. Most of them were retired, now, only ten, counting Kyle, still serving, and all others of those were in esoteric fields, unsocialized–so concentrated on their specialities it was likely immaterial to them what planet they were on or whether the rest of the human species existed.

Worth investigating, when she had time.

Spurlin death Lao dying. Lao’s Proxy still missing. And Ya