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Dextra's own. "Dextra, the Hierarchate will not squander a full-scale
Alpha mission to a planet with little usable surface area, medieval
cultures, and no unique resources. Most assuredly, we've nothing to learn from
people who live in terror of some soggy, overgrown cell mass!"
"But the Roke seem to fear the Oceanic, too," she reminded him. "Or at least
something about the place has made them keep their distance; we know that
much. The
Scepter survey team found
debris consistent with Roke design elsewhere in the Eyewash system but
no evidence of Roke presence on or near Aquamarine.
Am I the only one here who sees the possible significance of that?
If nothing else, Aquamarine could serve as a safe harbor for
LAW forces."
She did not mention peace because peace was not something the Human
Preservationist Party had much interest in pursuing.
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Doll Van Houten, two years older than Dextra but as sleekly soignee as a
fashion database icon, went "
Phui
!" dismissively. "It's as simple as this: The Roke don't consider
Aquamarine as any more strategic than we do. Darling Dex, planet Hierophant
is out there for the taking, a few light-years beyond Aquamarine but an
industrial and technological powerhouse."
Dextra frowned at her. "You're not intrigued by the thought of uncovering the
technological wonders left behind by the
Optimants' civilization?"
"Archaeology?" Doll asked. "Please, Dex. Save your enthusiasm for
two-hundred-year-old relics for the curators of the Museum of
Interplanetary Studies."
Albert P'ing sniffed, "Technology Assessment Bureau has reason to
suspect that Hierophant antivirus research might allow us to return to
neural interface cybernetting pre-Plague style in due course."
Dextra shot him an arch look. "I'll believe that when I see it."
Calvin Lightner, majority leader of the Lyceum and kingpin of the
Preservationists, eyed her from across the table, showing only a polite
disregard for her lack of faith. Now that he'd gone neutant embracing
the most ascetic manifestation of the asexual movement his ageless face put
Dextra in mind of a machine shop blank waiting to be stamped with
humanity.
In addition to courses of libido-deadening treatments, Lightner had
undergone surgical excision of his genitalia. But since no
right-thinking Preservationist would undergo permanent asexualization, his
reproductive organs had been deposited in cryo-sequester. Intense
population growth was considered sacred to the war effort, and party
leaders had to at least give the appearance of standing ready to help
carry on the human race if called upon. Power players who showed
distaste for or even renounced sex at the same time legislated for larger
families.
"The point remains," Doll chimed in, "that we must move to annex Hierophant
now, before they acquire military technologies and consolidate defenses that
close our window of opportunity.
Think lead time, Dex!"
Lead time a LAW preoccupation. Periapt had come through the Cyberplagues
relatively unscathed, but it was a planet short on strategic resources
such as metals and petrochemicals.
Periapt's partially intact infrastructure had helped it climb out of
post-Plague debility faster than had any other world, but a number of stellar
systems were closing the gap. If Periapt's once-only edge in lead
time were frittered away, if more resource-rich worlds achieved parity
in military, industrial, and space
technology, LAW's expansion and the new wealth of Periapt would be
over. To perpetuate itself, LAW had to go on as a kind of virus as
opportunistic a one as possible.
"At the very least Hierophant could be producing a new starship per
year for us, and the same holds true for Zion and
Shabash." Doll made the words sound like a serenade. "The
Hierarchate hasn't the time or wherewithal to waste on
Aquamarine."
Dextra nodded as if considering those words, though secretly she was certain
there was more to it than that. The
Scepter team had not been sequestered simply because LAW was fretting about
the allocation of assets. Everything pointed to the conclusion that
Aquamarine's Oceanic was a rather powerful intelligent being. If the single
inhabitant of the planet's only sea was intelligent, it would be only
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the second sophant life-form on record, after the
Roke or the third, if one counted the pre-Cyberplague AIs.
The Preservationists were running scared, Dextra surmised, from the
danger of the existence of an organism that might be more evolved than
Homo sapiens
. Revelations about the Oceanic could well alter the public's attitude
about the Roke or quite possibly erode support for LAW hegemony.
Dextra didn't want to be sidetracked, either. "Wouldn't we do better by
considering all the facts? If Aquamarine has nothing to offer us, then the
survey team is being quarantined for no good reason. I propose that LAW
trot them in from the outback to attest to Aquamarine's worthlessness."
Cal Lightner stirred at last. "I'm given to understand that the
Scepter team will have all it can do answering charges of dereliction
of duty. It's likely that the acting commander this
Claude Mason person stands to be court-martialed."
"For bringing back news that doesn't square with this year's fifty-year
plan?"
Lightner said, "No. For possible complicity in the deaths of the
Scepter's original commander and the other personnel."
Dextra simpered instead of grimacing. "From what I heard, Captain
Marlon died in a misadventure of his own planning.
Claude Mason and his people at least carried out a cursory reconnaissance
and amassed data on the Oceanic."
Doll flicked beringed fingers. "Those smatterings of data are disjointed and
inconclusive."
Dextra gazed back disingenuously. "Except as they prove your assertions?"
It went on like that for another hour, with Dextra pressing hard but
making no headway. She brought to bear what leverage she could, threatening
to tie up or help defeat legislation and appointments they wanted, but
they were adamant. The missions to Zion, Shabash, and Hierophant would
enrich the dynastic groups to which Doll, Lightner, and even P'ing
belonged. The building of those stupendous fortunes and the political
careers that protected them were what LAW and the Roke Conflict were really
about.
When she holoed up proof that monies for an Aquamarine
AlphaLAW mission could be shifted from other, overfattened budget
lines, Lightner unbent enough to show some anger. "Kindly keep your hand out
of my pocket, Madame Haven," he advised.
She tried hard to resist but couldn't. "Why, Cal? Since the
operation, what's down there to loot or damage?"
In no time she was seeing them to their airlimo and watching them lift off
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