"And the message is?"
"Apparently Parliament has reviewed the evidence from Brumal and found it sufficient to implicate Fleet in abuse of power. In the eyes of Parliament, we are now the innocent parties in this dispute."
"That is so gratifying to know. I'll try to remember it when I find myself attempting to breathe vacuum." He paused, assessing. "But I have yet to hear any strange message."
"Apparently the Chairman now wishes this Brumallian evidence to be presented to the Oversight Committee. He wants that Brumallian ship to come up here and deliver it to us. His tone was all rather low-key, as if he hoped the whole business would be approved without much notice."
Curious. Gneiss leaned back in his chair. In the midst of a struggle where such evidence now mattered not one wit, the Chairman wanted it brought here.
"Inform them that if the Brumallian ship approaches this station without permission—and it does not have my permission—it will be destroyed. Then I want you to contact the Chairman for me. Inform me at once when you have arranged that."
His response was precisely what it should be, yet he knew that even in the midst of the distractions of battle he wanted the Chairman to give him sufficient reason to allow that ship to come here.
Something to stir the waters?
The Chairman must have been ready waiting, for after only a moment Dalepan looked up. "I have him for you." The screen blanked for a second, then Chairman Duras appeared.
"What can I do for you, Director Gneiss?" he enquired.
"You could explain why, right in the midst of a battle, you feel it so necessary to get evidence to us of Fleet's complicity in recent events."
"As Chairman, I need only make my explanations to Parliament," Duras replied primly. "You previously assured me that Orbital Combine bows to the will of Parliament."
Almost automatically, Gneiss shot back, "Is it genuinely the will of Parliament for a Brumallian ship to bring this evidence here?"
"Parliament agrees that this evidence should be presented to you as soon as conveniently possible."
"Sending such a ship here now would be most inconvenient. I am not inclined, whilst we fight for our lives here, to have any Brumallians aboard this station." Gneiss felt a sinking sensation as he realised he did indeed possess the power to deny the Chairman's request.
"But no Brumallians as such will be joining you there." Duras smiled tightly. "Those who will take the evidence aboard Corisanthe Main are your own employee Yishna, her siblings Orduval and Rhodane, and the Polity Consul Assessor. I believe that Combine Oversight has shown itself anxious to discuss some matters with David McCrooger?"
"Yes, you're quite right." Only one valid objection remained. "However, there are many security matters to consider, the foremost being that in our present situation we cannot safely allow a Brumallian ship to dock here."
"It will not be necessary for it to dock. Yishna's inter-station shuttle is aboard it."
Gneiss paused, a feeling of excitement, almost joy, suffusing him. "Then in that case I must accede to the will of Parliament. Send us your evidence. Send us the ship."
"Always a pleasure," said Duras, giving a token bow before he signed off.
"Dalepan, tell me immediately that ship launches."
"It has already launched," the OCT replied. "Yishna will be here within the hour."
Gneiss sat back and absorbed that news. Within the hour three of the four children of Elsever Strone would be here aboard this station.
"I knew your mother, you know."
Gneiss remembered gazing across at the brilliant child Yishna Strone and wondering just how he could have uttered those words so casually. Elsever herself had been brilliant, beautiful, and Oberon Gneiss had loved her from the first moment he saw her, while she had reciprocated with a tolerant affection and often outrageous flirting. At that time occupying the position of Military Director of the civilian contingent, under the oversight of Fleet Command, Gneiss knew he had to be very careful how he related to other station staff. But when it seemed Elsever was getting bored with their never-quite-consummated liaison, he knew he had to do something.
He put down his next actions to a kind of madness that seemed to be growing throughout the station at that time, and which now expressed itself in the strange cults and factions that had evolved up here. Here aboard Corisanthe Main they had seemed disconnected from the War, a separate enclave where the rules just did not apply. So he had responded to her flirting, dined with her in one of the military refectories, then invited her back to his cabin. They had talked about their precious charge and about the studies that were being conducted on it. Taking a risk for the first time since his childhood, Gneiss accepted drinks from the bottle of station-distilled alcohol she had brought along with her. They had ended up in bed.
The sex had been…difficult at first, and his gratitude to Elsever—for never pointing out her undoubted knowledge of his virginity before their encounter—only increased his love of her. As their relationship progressed, a deeper madness seemed to infect him, and he revealed to her things he had never revealed to anyone else. They spent hours in his cabin talking, drinking, making love. Then one day he took her to his office and showed her his biggest secret of all. Before being made Director of the civilian contingent, he had been Military Director during that period when the Ozark Cylinders were being built. It being within his power, he had ordered private access to one cylinder to be built for him. He showed her, took her down in his lift to Ozark One where, in zero gravity, they stripped naked but for their breathing masks and had sex. As if the Worm had been waiting for the opportunity, it caused a fumarole breach precisely at that time.
"It touched me!" she had screamed.
He felt the horror, for it had touched him too. Yet, the ensuing physical examinations showed nothing, and subsequent tests revealed but one change: Elsever Strone was pregnant. Something changed utterly then: Elsever drifted away from him, and seemed to fold herself around the process of gestation. Whenever he saw her, she always looked frightened but seemed as unable to communicate the reasons behind this, just as he seemed unable to communicate his disturbing feelings to her. Then, after the birth, came her suicide. With relentless exactitude, Gneiss relocated all the personnel who had been involved in the tests and the investigation. Then, over a period of years, he changed the records: lost those bits about him and her being naked in Ozark One without escort, also lost most references to himself.
It had touched her.
She had known what it had done, and somehow that had been too much to bear. That she used the explosive to destroy her body might be due to shame—perhaps she didn't want anyone to know what it had done to her. He sometimes wondered if maybe it had not wanted anyone knowing what had been done to her.
Yes, Yishna, I knew your mother, because I am your father—at least in part.
Gneiss returned to his consoles, and to his duty.
McCrooger
Acceleration placed a heavy boot on my chest and crushed me down into the living mattress of the couch. I felt something pop in my lungs and coughed salty fluid into my mouth, but didn't bother to check if it was blood. I lay there labouring for each breath and wondering if I should just stop breathing and let IF21 and the mutualite take over and do all the work. I didn't, however, because that seemed just too much like giving up. Finally the foot came off my chest and I became weightless. Quickly pushing myself across the room, I forced open a container—something like a clam extruded from the wall—and removed items from inside it. The gun Duras had given me went underneath my foamite shirt, and spare ammunition clips went into various pockets. Hopefully I would have no use for the weapon. I then turned and pushed off towards the exit from the room. While in mid-air I heard a vicious smack, then a sound like hail hitting a tin roof, and knew we were once again approaching the orbital battle lines.