“A fault line in the association of the captains. And I think one might even suspect Sabin might have been against dealing with us, and for dealing with the Mospheirans, but even she may be doubtful now, seeing Tamun’s kin as the fourth captain. This cannotplease Ogun or Sabin, who now may find they have something in common simply by not being Tamun’s.”
“They are notincomprehensible,” Tano murmured.
“In some regards, more like the aiji’s court than the Mospheirans are,” Bren said. “Obscure connections, subterranean agreements—so to speak—placing the interest of their own small association of birth and convenience as paramount within a very large kinship. Threaten the kindred as a whole and that might unify them; but the planet and its offers are a potent force for change in their community; and where change happens—” He gave a shrug.
“Gold among thieves?” Jago suggested wickedly. It was a proverb: the impetus first to unite, then to dissociate bloodily in self-interest.
“Something of the sort. Although one might think… perhaps a slight bit more noble.”
“Indeed” Jago said grimly. ”Yet another angry faction—the just and noble.”
He gave a rueful laugh. “True, I very much fear. Jase’s faction, the very ones Tamun is sending into exile and the very ones the crew can least afford to lose. One wonders what they lost when they colonized the station, and what manner of folk died when it perished.”
“Ramirez created Jase,” Banichi said thoughtfully. “Created Jase as a man without man’chi, except to the ship. Ramirez created Yolanda. Now Tamun exiles them both. What does this mean to the crew?”
“Nothing good,” Bren said. “Nothing good for them at all.”
“We could shoot this Tamun-aiji,” Algini suggested.
“It’s very tempting,” Bren said. It was even counted virtuous, among atevi, that leaders, and not the followers, should die in conflicts. “But to satisfy them and to have an agreement later, we have to deal with their law. We have to hope for other means.”
Barb is showing improvement. Paul showed up and signed the necessary papers. He had very little to say. I haven’t heard from Toby. Do you know where he is? I’m concerned about him and Jill, and I suspect Louise isn’t telling me the whole story.
The security people are making a fuss about my being here. Ever since the news said you’d gone up to the station, they haven’t let me answer my own phone. I hate this. They have guards on this floor, guards watching Barb’s room. It’s just crazy.
I phoned Shawn and phoned your office on the mainland and told them to tell Tabini you hadn’t been in touch.
Barb is going to have another operation tomorrow.
This is the third, but this time they have the bleeding stopped, and this one is to take out some of the tubes and such. She says thank you for the flowers. You could at least send her a hello. It’s only polite.
He didn’t react with temper. He composed a polite, concerned reply, wrote to Tabini:
We have Jase in our keeping, aiji-ma. An opposing association surrounding the fourth captain has seized enough power to insist on his banishment to the planet but not sufficient power to do him harm. The senior of the four has been the target of an assassination attempt.
To Shawn Tyers he wrote, in Ragi, via his office:
As best I can determine, the head of your operation here has valiantly resisted attempts to divide our interests. She persists through hardship, and we support her as best we can. I have not yet drawn her within our protection because having more than one vantage within the station affords us a certain operational flexibility. I urge you to consult with the mainland for more details.
More than that, he dared not write. There was too much chance of having communication cut off again, if it was in fact going through… and he had no proof of that until someone answered him with direct evidence of having read his letters.
“Put me through to Kroger,” he asked Cl.
“ Kroger has given notice she is not receiving messages,” Cl answered. “This is a sleep period.”
“Cl, put me through, or I go there.”
“ Let me consult,” Cl answered him, and put him through, all the same.
Thatwas interesting, he thought as Kroger answered.
“Bren Cameron,” he identified himself. “We have Jase, we have Mercheson, we have the families, as best we can guess. Jase is moving slowly, but everyone seems in good health. Want to join us for supper?”
Jase roused himself out of bed, sore, upset, and in bad temper. At a certain point, Bren thought, one just let the anger slide off. He didn’t blame Jase.
“You’re not getting out of here,” he said to Jase in Ragi. As Jase stood, in a bathrobe, it was not imminent, but Jase was pushing himself to ignore the pain. “That’s exactly what they want you to do, and you’re not going to do it.”
“It doesn’t mean—” Jase began.
He finished it: “You’re out of the game, Jase. Figure it out. Pridebe damned. Throwing yourself away and helping them find the man you don’t want them to find isn’t sensible. Shut up and sit down.”
Jase reached a chair and sat. “A moment, nadi.”
He gave Jase that moment, sat down, himself, and let Jase absorb the pain, and the facts of his situation, in peace. That Jase remembered Ragi, and the self-control of the aiji’s court, was a wonder in itself, considering the circumstances.
Perhaps indicative of the direction of his thoughts, Jase pushed his hair back, straight back, as he’d worn it until he’d done such a wretched job cutting it.
“You’ve become part of thismission,” Bren said.
“Clothes,” Jase said.
“We have yours being cleaned and pressed. Even that jacket.”
Jase managed a short, pain-clipped mirth. “Narani so wanted to do that.”
“Desperately.”
“You can borrow mine.”
“Can’t wear yours.”
“Funny, you don’t appear to have put on weight. I’d say, in fact, you’d have trouble filling them out at the moment.”
“I need shipclothes.”
“No, Jase point of fact, you don’t.”
“He’s out there; he has no help. I have to do something, Bren!”
“Don’t count that he has no help,” Bren said. It was Ramirez they were talking about, in this coded mode of no-proper-names. “Conspiracy is spreading through the crew. The shuttle’s due back imminently. I’m going to talk to our fellow delegates from the island, fifteen days to wait while they check out the shuttle… we have to get out of here. We have no more reasonable, rational choice. I can’t lose you. Do you hear? If everything’s lost, there’s you. That’s his legacy.”
“I’m not him!”
“No. You’re his project, his program, his hands, and his determination to have his way. Don’tgive up.”
There were several moments’ more silence while Jase thought that over, and the court mask came over his face, despite the pain.
“The aiji’s favorites have a way of ending up in charge,” Bren said, beyond that. “And atevi are coming to this place. The ship has no choice.”
Jase gazedat him, absorbing that thought, that idea, that proposition.