Regenesis

BOOK ONE Section 3 Chapter vi

MAY 3, 2424

1121H

Major headache, right between the eyes. Deepstudy did that sometimes–especially on too little food, especially when it was tape‑study on population dynamics, which wasn’t a commercial tape, wasn’t paced to be, was just raw notes and data and conclusions dumped into one’s head under the deepteach drug, so the habitual mind wanted to add it up and make it make sense and the critical faculties just weren’t answering the phone.

But the too‑little‑food part was another very good reason for the headache, which was why Ari had scheduled herself to come out of it at 1115h. She still was on the edge of the drug–when she was coming out, she’d told domestic staff just not to talk to her or ask her anything or tell her anything. She was apt to have what they said ru

Her predecessor had, for example, prepped a cadre of azi to survive if some Alliance ship had taken out Cyteen Station and dropped a rock on Reseune itself. They were to get to the weathermaker controls and the precip towers, hold them if they could, otherwise go for the safety domes, take over by armed action, and run things, never mind any plan Defense had laid down. There were some alphas seeded into Novgorod, just for leaven in the loaf. They’d have children by now. Children would have CIT numbers, ultimately indistinguishable from the CITs whose ancestors had come down to earth from the station. If the average held true, the children were probably not geniuses. But she could track them down. A little computer work, carefully shielded, would be interesting–if she had the time to do that research. She didn’t. Her schedule said she was supposed to be doing math tape this afternoon. And she sat, muzzy‑headed, wishing she could take a day off from everything on her schedule.

The door to her study opened, quietly She took a sip of coffee and looked up at Florian.

“Sera,” he said. “He was willing. He did very well. Are you able to hear the report?”

That was a mental shift. A serious mental shift. Florian meant Justin. Willing meant Justin had done what they had talked about last night, she and Florian and Catlin. And she’d told him to report as soon as she was awake. She was intensely curious–too wide‑focused at the moment, but curious.

“Did it work?” she asked, shoving population dynamics and all the equations to the rear. What concerned Justin worried her, on a personal basis, and she didn’t like involving him in operations. “Did you learn anything?”

“Patil claimed not to know Jordan Warrick except by reputation. But she accepted the younger Warrick’s advisement that he has influence with you. I have the transcript. –Is this too early, yet, sera?”

She had a second sip of coffee, blinked at the headache between her eyes, and shook her head. “No. I’ll go over it. I want to. What are the details? How do you read it?”

“He invoked an investigation into your predecessor’s death, as if Jordan was seeking a new inquiry to be opened into that matter–his i

She didn’t know why. She didn’t quite like the sound of that, granted Justin had had to improvise. Was it because that issuewas riding Justin’s subconscious, and that was what had surfaced in his mind? She was a little surprised, a little off put. But there was Jordan’smotive to question. He was a son of a bitch. But was he tryingto get Admin’s attention?

“Ser Warrick suggested that she and Thieu might be subjects of investigation because of the card and the co

Which was even the plain truth, just a large enough dose of it to make it credible.

But the other matter hit her skull and rattled around unpleasantly before heading through her nerves, just an unsettling, undefined malaise. The question of Jordan’s i

Deepstudy drug. Damn it.

“I ama little muzzy yet. I think I need to cut back the doses. Shouldn’t be lasting like this.”

“Forgive me, sera. You said–”

“I said tell me when I waked. And I ought to be awake. I amawake. I’m just a little disturbed by the direction he went.”

“Dr. Patil was about to end the conversation. He used that matter as a wedge.”

“What did she say then?”

“That she had no co

“Someone provided her address to Jordan. Either he handed on a card the full significance of which he didn’t know, a total coincidence, or he did know.”

“In our opinion, the elder Warrick knew whose number that card was, and that she is currently important.”

“Do you think that is possibly his motive, that he wants vindication? Florian, whoactually sent Jordan to Planys?”

“Our indications are it was Ya

“That’s what my own search turned up. Ya

“Our indications are that, yes. But, sera–”

She waited.

“If you’re not prepared to talk, sera…”

“I’m thinking quite clearly at the moment.” What the drug did, besides diminish the ability to reject a fact, was to lower the bars on partitioned information–make cross‑co

“I do, sera.”

“I need to do something.” She was aware she was staring straight ahead, her eyes wide open. She knew the look: black centered, unfocused, focused everywhere, and nowhere in the real world. “I like him, Florian. I like Ya

“Should I take orders from you at this point?”

She was perfectly collected. She slowly moved her head from side to side. “No. You should not. I need about fifteen more minutes to get my head clear, Florian. I need a cold drink. Would you mind going and getting that? That’s a request, not an order.”

“Are you safe to leave alone, sera?”

“Perfectly safe. I’ll sit here and think. I’d like that drink, thank you. Something sugary.”

“Fifteen minutes, sera.”

She wasn’t surprised when, hardly a moment behind Florian’s leaving, Catlin quietly opened the door and came in.

“Sit down,” Ari said, still not focusing on anything but infinity. “I’m thinking a moment, Catlin. I know you’re there.”

Catlin subsided into a chair without a word. And Ari stared off into her thoughts.

Ya

Ya