Defender

“I believe she does.”

“It’s worth a certain risk of diplomatic difficulty, Jase-ji, to know in absolute detail what this ship met aboard the station. Can you call your former aide for a conference, some unfinished business?”

“I can’t do that to him. Bren, I can’t.”

“I didn’t say we were going to make a move.”

“I don’t know what it could entail with things as they are. And you aren’t in command of this mission, Bren-nadi. Ilisidiis. Am I mistaken?”

“No. You’re not mistaken.”

“And if her staff finds out what you suspect, you can’t tell me what she’d stick at.”

True. He drifted back against the counter, took a solid grip. Air currents had taken Jase away from a hand grip and Jase reached and drew himself back before he lost easy contact.

“I’m not going to give this up,” Bren said.

“I can try to talk to Jen—”

“Names,” Bren cautioned him, and Jase cut it off.

“I can try to talk, myself, nadi.”

“We have how long, reasonably, until the ship breaks dock?”

“Six hours at minimum. Not above twelve.”

“I want the tape, Jase-paidhi.” At a certain point in emergencies, all common sense seemed to cut out and priorities became very cold, very remote from the consequences of failure: downhill, breakneck. “I can’t claim to have created the aishidi’tat, but I created the situation, the whole structure of twigs that supports it. So I know the alternatives. I know what we had before, and I know that there can be worse outcomes than a breach with this mission. I can imagine those very well: betraying the dowager, alienating the aiji—us finding out that our allies came here to get control of our resources.”

“No.”

“Maybe a war that devastated the mainland would suit certain purposes just very well.”

“That’s not so, nadi!”

“Prove it isn’t. Prove to me your ship didn’t come here with exactly that purpose—to find out the conditions in this solar system, to fuel the ship, and go home to report, preparatory to a power grab. We have only your word that the situation you reported out there even exists. We’re betting the whole planet on details we don’t know. You’ve insisted all along nobody on the ship knows better. But now that Landa-ji, out of her private hell of the last few years, points out the obvious, that there wouldhave been a tape record in archive, well, yes, I’d rather like to see it before I step off the edge.”

“What do you think? That the whole crew is in on a conspiracy?”

“No, I’m suggesting they’re the last to know. Either get me the tape, or say you can’t, or don’t want to know, and we’lldo it, but don’task me to assume everything’s all right.”

Jase’s eyes made an eloquent shift toward the door, the windowed wall. “I take for granted Banichi’s heard what we’ve said.”

“I’m sure.”

“Has Cenedi?”

It was a question. Jago’s face gave no hint at all.

“You may answer, Jago-ji,” Bren said.

“Yes to both. We are within the dowager’s household, of allied man’chi, nadiin-ji.”

“Then this is my answer. You’re within my household,” Jase said in a brittle voice, “under my roof, as myhonored guests… and so is the dowager. I don’t think if it were Geigi’s house we would contemplate breaking the historic porcelains because we had a suspicion.”

“Not in the least. Nor do we here.”

“Or endangering lives.”

“Nor shall we.”

“I wasn’t aware of movements I should have known, because I was submerged in my own efforts at a very dangerous time—trying to memorize everything I could, as hard as I could, as fast as I could, after years of saying I wouldn’t. And that’s my fault.”

“We’re not speaking of fault, here, Jase.”

“For the record, it’s my fault. I know a mistake when I see it. But I won’t compound that fault by turning one of my own over to you for an open-ended set of questions, or failing to take command of operations in my household, Bren-paidhi. Let’s have that clear.”

“You’re saying you’ll help us.”

“I’m saying if this file exists, Iwant it, myself. I assume Sabin can get it, but I don’t know that. I assume she knows it’s out there. If she knows and hasn’t told me, or if she doesn’t know and I find out something she needs to know, I’ll decide then what to do with the information. No. I won’t help you. You’llhelp me, and I’ll share information with your side.”

Jase had his moments. On the planet—he’d had a lot of them, once he’d gotten his land-legs and understood the situation; but they hadn’t seen Jase at full stretch since he came aboard and under ship’s authority.

And he had no trouble accepting Jase on a slightly opposed side of the issue.

“I’ll put that proposition to the dowager,” Bren said. “But she’ll know. What’s your advice? Do we let you go out of here, when we suspect a remote possibility that security’s been recording us, and that with half an hour’s concentrated work on the part of people your ship could have been training for a decade—assuming they’re about as fluent as the run of the University—they might translate enough to know what you’re up to?”

“Letting me leave is a real good idea, Bren. As to asking me to stay and talk to the dowager—I assume you’re going to offer—I’ve got a meeting I’m supposed to be back to, up there, that’s going to ring alarms if I’m not back. Sabin’s already suspicious.”

“Why are you afraid of her?”

Jase looked at him as if he’d lost his mind.

“No,” Bren said. “I’m dead serious. Whyare you afraid of her, under the rules that are supposed to apply?”

Now Jase heard him. Thoughts raced.

“Where can you access the log?” Bren asked. “Jase-ji.”

“It’s only two places. It’s a read-write on the bridge and it’s a read-only in the nav office. It receives and logs automatically from the sensors and the cameras, on a loop—automatically stores alarms and alerts, queries the officer store or no-store on the outside camera input on an interval the officer sets.” Jase’s eyes had a slightly glazed look. “I’ve been memorizing this stuff.”

“It’s not wasted. So Ramirez-aiji had to order a store on that camera info.”

“It’s possible he erased it. Possible.”

“In his situation, at the time, considering there could be something to prove to colleagues or successors to the situation—would you?”

“I’d keep it. I’d definitely keep it. But there’s one other source. There’s the men that saw it. Let me talk to Jenrette, under the guise of an apology—he has one coming—and see what he knows.”

“Let you give mea call every hour on the hour to tell me you aren’t languishing under arrest. Or better yet—suppose you take meon a tour of the operational areas and we both get hold of him.”

“You want to know what I’m afraid of,” Jase said. “She can do it. She canorder security and I can’t—she’s the only legitimate authority, legitimate in that she knows what she’s doing. And I can’t replace her. Ogun can’t replace her. If she says jump, people jump.”

“One may have an answer, nandiin-ji.”

Not Jago’s voice. Banichi’s, from the doorway.

And not just Banichi—Cenedi. And the aiji-dowager, drifting slightly sideways and attached by her cane to the ubiquitous ladders.

“We will see this ship-aiji at our table,” Ilisidi said.

“Aiji-ma, I don’t think she’ll regard an invitation.”

“ At our table!” Ilisidi said.

“In these conditions?”

“The crew is boarding, is it not?” Cenedi asked. “And will gravity not exist once they turn the engines on?”

“In essence, Cenedi-ji,” Jase said. “But at that point the ship will undock, which will necessitate securing all perso

“And then, ship-aiji?” Ilisidi asked sharply. “And then? Do we shoot off like a rocket? Or glide away like a yacht? And are we not expected to eat and sleep, or do we starve and languish for the duration of this voyage?”