Once inside the station, he told her, "Stay healthy," before moving off. She smiled her thanks, but had to wonder about that comment. Certainly she had not been too healthy when last she left this place, and now, upon her return, felt a growing fear that she might once again become the troubled person she had been then. Shaking her head angrily she set out, two of the armed OCTs staying to escort her to the Director. From them she discovered that all Worm research had been stopped—the containment cylinders locked down under a security protocol, but thankfully not one for a physical breach, she realised, because, after her own interference, that would have meant the containment cylinders had long departed the station. Everyone she saw on the way was wearing either spacesuits or emergency survival suits and seemed to be moving at an accelerated pace.

In his office the Director had the same question for her as Dalepan had asked aboard the shuttle.

"I've considered this," she replied, "and come to the conclusion that, just like myself, my brother is prepared to do anything to attain his goals."

Director Gneiss gestured to the seat before his desk, swung a screen scroll across on a pivoted arm, extended the flimsy screen, then tapped something into a console before him. Yishna sat eyeing the sensor head mounted in the wall behind him, then his suit helmet resting on the desk beside him. She had yet to collect a suit for herself from the stores. After a moment he gazed across at her, and once again Yishna was struck by how she somehow knew him, yet could never read him. Having been away for a while she had nearly convinced herself that her prior opinion of him had been distorted somehow. But here, now, upon her return, she found him just as unnerving as ever.

"We have defences against conventional weapons, and possess many such weapons too," he stated. "We also have gravtech weapons of our own; however, there is as yet very little defence against them, and in the end, should they be deployed by either side, very little will remain around Sudoria but the wreckage of the hilldiggers and our stations."

"But don't the same rules apply to gravtech weapons as to missiles that aren't self-directed, like those fired by linear accelerator?" Yishna interlaced her fingers in her lap and attempted a relaxed mien. She had no doubt that members of the Combine Oversight Committee were watching very closely everything that occurred in this room and logging questions on the screen the Director kept flicking his plastic gaze towards.

"Your point?" he asked.

"A gravity-disruptor burst expands like a torch beam—by the inverse square law—so to hit one of our stations without striking Sudoria, that weapon would need to be fired at or below the orbital level of the station." Yishna shrugged. "Should a hilldigger manage to attain such an advantageous position, that would mean it no longer needed to use such a weapon." Gneiss just stared back at her so she continued. "What Harald could do in close with gravity disruptors, he could also manage at a distance, with little danger to Fleet, with missiles fired by linear accelerator. To go back to your original question: I feel my brother will be quite prepared to inflict considerable collateral damage on Sudoria while attaining his goal. But I feel the real question to ask is how much collateral damage to their home planet are those under his command prepared to tolerate?"

"You make some interesting points," said Gneiss.

"Harald is not Fleet," Yishna added. "And it is well to remember that there'll be few under his command who do not have family down on the surface, and even aboard some of the Combine stations."

"What does Harald actually want?" Gneiss asked. It was another of those questions posed by him that seemed to contain too many perilous levels of meaning.

"You know the answer to that as well as I do," Yishna replied, deciding to give as good as she got.

"We are supposing that, like many in Fleet, Harald resents Orbital Combine's growing power?"

"So it would appear."

All surface…all ephemeral…

"He instigated recent unfortunate events so he could use them as an excuse to take away our control of our defence platforms. We are supposing, from his recent actions, that if he cannot attain this end through Parliament, he will resort to force."

Yishna shook her head. "I feel you're missing the point. If Harald cannot take control of the platforms through Parliament, he'll know that he cannot ultimately take control of them by force. His aim will be to take control of them out of our hands, so he'll attempt to destroy them."

"And having done that, he will cease?"

"Of course not. We built the platforms…" Yishna paused, realising that during this discussion she had come to properly understand Harald's aims. "I think that what Parliament decides has become irrelevant. Harald knows that, even with a parliamentary vote going against us, we'll not hand over the platforms."

"Conflict cannot be avoided, then?"

"I think not. I think it my brother's intention to smash Combine and then absorb its remnants into Fleet. I talked to Duras about this, who feared his next target might then be Sudoria itself. I doubted that then…now I am not so sure."

"Do you feel any sibling loyalty?"

"I am loyal to Combine because it allows me to do those things that most interest me, involving research of the Worm, and now to stand at the fulcrum of events concerning our contact with the Polity. During his petty games, my brother killed the Consul Assessor, and I can never forgive him for that."

"Your brother will attempt to seize the Worm for Fleet?"

"If possible. And if not, he'll destroy it." Even as she said the words, a sudden outfield thought occurred to her: It has prepared for this possibility. A simple containment breach, which would be almost inevitable if Corisanthe Main came under heavy attack, and her alteration of the protocols would result in the Ozark Cylinders all being ejected. Then she shook her head. Madness, surely?

After a long pause while he studied his screen, Gneiss said, "You should go now and draw yourself a spacesuit from stores."

"What do you want of me now?" Yishna asked, standing.

"There is much work to be done and you possess so much expertise."

"You might trust me, but will the Oversight Committee let me stay here?"

"I have always trusted you, Yishna, for I know what you hold most dear. As for the Committee, they heed my advice. You will now take charge of the research body and find useful employment for it, and you will also act as my troubleshooter, as problems are sure to arise from the new…installations."

"Thank you." She turned and headed towards the door.

"One other thing, Yishna," said Gneiss, and she paused and turned enquiringly. "It seems likely that the Consul Assessor is not dead, after all."

"What?"

"Though Fleet are now blocking all communication, analysis of some pictures earlier transmitted from our geosurvey satellite clearly shows him on the planet's surface, accompanied by some Brumallians, a short time after his escape-pod sank."

Yishna felt at first glad, then bitter. What difference did it make to her, to any of them, with what seemed now almost inevitable?

"That's good news, I guess," she said.

Gneiss waved a dismissive hand.

Harald

Harald sat back, headset placed to one side, smiling gently as he watched the feed arriving direct from Parliament to a screen here in the Haven, then frowning when the image hazed momentarily.

"What's causing that?" asked Franorl, sprawled in a comfortable chair.

"Overspill from the EM chaff, presently blocking com to and from Brumal," Harald replied.