She watched their reactions spread like ripple rings colliding on a water surface; tried to guess whether it was genuine — whether the Assembly knew, whether the civil officials did, whether she was the only human being in this room who had been blind to the truth… But if any of them were faking their amazement, they were good at it. The murmurs of protest rose along the table.
“Are you trying to tell us,” Hovanesse said, “that someone claims we’ve been exterminating an intelligent race?”
She nodded, her eyes downcast as she spoke, treading lightly. “Not knowingly, of course.” In her mind she saw the bodies on the beach: but kit ting them just the same. “I’m sure no one in this room, no member of the Hegemonic Assembly, would let anything like that go on.” She glanced deliberately at the oldest Wearer of the Badge among them, a man in his sixties who just might be left over from long enough ago. “But someone knew once, because we know about the water of Life.” If he did know, he wasn’t letting her see it on his face; she wondered suddenly why she wanted to.
“So you are suggesting,” one of the other Kharemoughis demanded, “that our ancestors consciously buried the truth, in order to get the water of life for themselves?”
She heard the extra grimness that weighed down ancestors, and realized that she had made a misstep. Criticizing a Kharemoughi’s ancestors was like accusing one of her own people of incest.
But she nodded, firmly, stubbornly, “Someone’s did, yes, sir.”
Hovanesse took a sip from his glass, said heavily, “Those are exceptionally ugly and unpleasant charges to bring up at a time like this, Commander PalaThion.”
She nodded again. “I know, Your Honor. But I can’t think of a more appropriate audience for them. If this is true—”
“Who made the accusation? What’s his proof?”
“An off worlder named Ngenet; he has a land-grant plantation here on Tiamat.”
“Ngenet?” The Director of Communications touched his ear in derision. “That renegade? He’d claim anything to make the Hegemony look bad. Everyone in the government knows that. The only attention he deserves from you, Commander, is a jail cell.”
Jerusha smiled briefly. “I once considered it. But he claims this information was given to him by a sibyl; it would be easy enough to I corroborate by asking another one.”
“I wouldn’t degrade the honor of my ancestors by such an insulting act!” one of the assemblymen murmured.
“It seems to me,” Jerusha leaned forward again, “that the future of this world’s people, human and nonhuman, ought to be a lot more important than the reputation of Kharemoughis who were dust a millennium ago. If a wrong’s being done, let’s admit it and correct it. If we wink at mass murder here we’re as bad as the Snow Queen herself. Worse — splattered with the blood of innocent beings by the slaves and lackeys who only obey our demands, while we punish them for our guilt by keeping them in the Fke Age!” Stunned by the words she heard come out of her own mouth, she remembered abruptly who had put them into her mind.
The silence of the grave met her on every side, and bore her back down into her seat. She sat still, very aware of her own breathing, and of then — goodwill draining away, emptying out of this husk of a room. “Sorry, gentlemen. I guess I — spoke out of turn. I know this is a hard accusation to face; that’s why I’ve had so damn much trouble knowing what to do about it myself, whether to file a report—”
“Don’t file a report,” Hovanesse said.
She looked up at him, questioning; back along the table’s length at the brittle anger of the Kharemoughis, and the resentful anger of the Newhavenese. You damn fool! What made you think they’d want to look Truth straight in the face, any more than you did?
“The Assembly will take up the matter after we leave Tiamat. When we’ve made our decision, the Hegemonic Coordinating Center on Kharemough will be notified of any policy change that needs to be made.”
“You will question a sibyl, at least.” She twisted her watchband below the table’s edge, longing for a handful of iestas.
“We have one among us, on the ships,” not entirely answering the question.
I pity the poor bleeder, with a clientele like that. She wondered in her heart whether this one question worth asking would ever be asked again.
“In any case,” Hovanesse frowned at her silence, “whatever is decided won’t have to concern you, Jerusha; you’ll spend the rest of your career, and your life, light-years away from Tiamat. Just like we all will. We appreciate your concern, your honesty in speaking your mind. But the question and Tiamat become purely academic for us from here on.”
“I suppose so, Your Honor.” And even the rain doesn’t fall if it doesn’t fall on you. She got to her feet again and saluted them all stiffly. “Thank you for your time, and for asking me here. But I’ve got to be getting back to my duties before they become academic, too.” She turned without waiting for a sign of dismissal and went quickly out of the room.
She had gotten as far as the hallway before Hovanesse’s voice called her to a stop. She turned back, half hot and half cold, saw t him coming after her alone. She couldn’t quite read his face.
“You didn’t give the Assembly the opportunity to give you your new assignments, Commander.” His eyes castigated her for her tactlessness and ingratitude before the Assembly members; but he said nothing more.
“Oh.” She took the printout automatically from his hand, with fingers that felt nothing. Oh, gods, what’s my fortune to be?
“Aren’t you going to look at it?” It was not a casual inquiry, or a friendly one, and she felt the numbness spread.
She almost refused, but some perverse part of her would not ignore the challenge. “Of course.” She unsealed the flimsy paper and let it fall open, her eyes striking the page randomly. The Tiamatan force was being split up, as she had expected, reassigned to several different worlds. Mantagnes had been given another chief inspectorship. And she… she… her eyes found her own name at last and she read… “There’s been a mistake.” She felt the perfect calm of perfect disbelief. She read it again: a sector command, almost the equal of her position here. But at Paradise Station, Syllagong, on Big Blue. “There’s nothing there but a cinder desert.”
“And the penal colony. Extensive mineral mining goes on there, Commander. It’s of considerable importance to the Hegemony. There are plans for starting an additional colony; that’s why they’re expanding the force there.”
“Damn it, I’m a police officer. I don’t want to run a prison camp.” The paper sighed as her hands tightened. “Why am I being given this? Is it what I just said in there? It isn’t my fault if the—”
“This was your original assignment, Commander. But because of your accomplishments, your rank has been raised to a sector command.”
He said the words deliberately, oozing the smugness of a man who lived by influence and prior knowledge. “Rehabilitating offenders is just as important as apprehending them, after all. Someone has to do it, and you’ve proven you can handle a — difficult position.”
“A dead-end position!” To argue was only to humiliate herself further, but she fought a losing battle with her temper. “I’m the Commander of Police for this entire planet. I’ve just been given a commendation. I don’t have to stand by and let my career die!”
“Of course you don’t,” he patronized. “You can take it up with the Assembly members — although you probably won’t earn much sympathy after the disgusting and outrageous charges you just made in there.” His dark eyes grew darker. “Let’s be blunt about this, shall we, Commander? You and I both know you owe your place at the top to the Queen’s interference. The only reason you were made an inspector in the first place was merely to humor her. This new position is more than you deserve. You know as well as I do that the men under your command here never accepted taking orders from a woman.” But that was Arienrhod’s doing! And it’s changing now, changed already — “Morale was terrible, as Chief Inspector Mantagnes frequently reported to me. You are neither needed nor wanted on the force. Whether you take this assignment or resign is up to you, but it’s all the same to us.” He locked his hands behind his back and stood before her, as immovable as a wall. She remembered the glowing platitudes he had mouthed about her so short a time ago.