The Valerena Tregesser heard the public announcement. From that she reasoned forward to WarAvocat's private thoughts.
— 143 —
VII Gemina limped across the Rim, a determined cripple, much slower than during the crashing inward run. In private WarAvocat was as concerned as anyone else. Gemina had no recollection of a time so desperate the Guardship had carried on with this much damage.
He hoped for the best.
A long, slow passage, without political complications, allowed time to look into what he had shelved or missed. He spent a lot with Klass and her Meddinians, trying to integrate their knowledge into what Gemina already had. Which meant frequent collisions with the unpleasant fact of Gemina's burgeoning ego.
He spent some time in damaged areas where Gemina could not eavesdrop, too, discussing that with senior live crew. The meetings did not produce much. He did learn that there were no breaches in the Core's armor or seals. The problem was not organic. It would develop slowly—but could not be treated medically.
Klass had a suggestion: resurrect her sidekick. "She's the only one aboard who's had a kid or has had to deal with one. Right now Gemina is a real bright baby. We could make some breaks for ourselves if we started from the beginning trying to bring it up right."
He chuckled, not taking her seriously.
"You start right now teaching it ‘I Am A Soldier.' That it's got specific duties and responsibilities and honors and privileges. Teach it that it's an important part of the crew but only a member of the crew. That's in the programme already. Reinforce it whenever you deal with the personality. Treat it that way and demand that it behave that way."
An amusingly flaky idea—that grew on him. He adopted it. It might buy needed time. He authorized AnyKaat's restoration.
He permitted the Tregesser woman to insinuate herself into his bed. It was a way to keep an eye on her. She had some private agenda. What it was he could not fathom.
He suspected she was in regular contact with Tawn, and they might even have a physical relationship, but he could worm nothing out of her. Nor could he learn much through surveillance. Gemina still insisted Tawn was mythical and would not see her though crew sightings were a commonplace.
He took VII Gemina off the Web at a system already designated B. Alenica, nicknamed Chatterpoint, deep within the methane-breather empire. Chatterpoint was the place to leave data packages whenever one Guardship had something worth sharing with others.
There were recent optimistic packages from old confederates IV Trajana and XII Fulminata. According to them, it was almost over. A couple more gas giants to hit, some mopping up, putting quits to roving warships without bases to support them anymore.
Simpletons.
WarAvocat set out a package containing VII Gemina's news, with requests for support in the waste space.
Valerena came early the day VII Gemina departed Chatterpoint. She was troubled. He asked, "What is it?"
"Guardship politics. I made a mistake, staying. I don't fit this reality at all. Some of the Deified are going to try to kill you. But I don't see how they could."
— 144 —
Lupo hugged everybody, including Turtle, then hugged everybody again. For hours everybody told everyone what had happened for a year and a half. "You pulled it off!" Provik enthused. "I don't believe it. But why did you come back, Kez Maefele? I thought you'd do another long disappearance."
"I hope I have." The Ku looked around. "And there was nowhere else where I had more friends."
Lupo was startled. He heard truth there, if not the whole truth. "There's more."
"Yes. When I gave WarAvocat the data, all I gave him was what he needed to silence the methane breathers. I reserved information about several tag ends with no military significance. If I could find a partner willing to share the wealth of that waste space with the Ku people..."
Lupo burst out laughing. "You never stop scheming, do you?"
"Do you? I have to be what I was made to be."
"You have a deal. Down the middle. I'll put up equipment and capital. You come up with the manpower and keep the Guardships out of our hair. They haven't given up on us."
"No. But VII Gemina will be occupied with internal problems perhaps long enough for us to become a matter of no consequence."
"I hope so. Come on, we have to have an all-Canon blowout to celebrate the most bizarre passage in modern history."
— 145 —
Jo caught AnyKaat's signal, cocked the hairsplitter she had kept as a souvenir. Two furtive OpsCrew types came along an aisle between vats, supporting a limber-limbed replica of Makarska Vis.
WarAvocat had anticipated his enemies correctly.
The OpsCrew conspirators were headed for Personnel Recording. While the replica was in the vat, and in transit to Recording afterward, it was the only record of the Deified.
Jo stepped into their path, aimed at Vis's forehead, blew her brains out. After the woman fell, Jo shot her through the head twice more, walked away.
The Deified Makarska Vis was dead forever. There was no way she could be restored.
Jo figured the Deified would get WarAvocat's message.
— 146 —
Seeker and Amber Soul were beside Strate when he took VII Gemina into the waste space. Colonel Klass and AnyKaat were there to help communicate. WarAvocat was awed by the stellar display, which had been invisible from Webspace. "I wasn't convinced," he said. "Until now. You could hide anything in that."
The Godspeakers had plenty of warning, though WarAvocat used Helispinners liberally to burrow a channel so he could reach his objective more quickly. He sent a rider force ahead to strike at two incomplete habitats Seeker feared would flee before they could be destroyed.
Strate told Klass, "Tell him to concentrate on tracking those things." Minutes after VII Gemina's breakaway Seeker had announced that each habitat contained a "brood mass," a mindless superGodspeaker colony serving a reproductive function resembling that of a queen ant and the data storage function of a Starbase Core—though the brood mass could not manipulate that data itself.
"It's a repository for genes and knowledge," Klass said. "Without one there could be no more Godspeakers."
"Why hasn't he mentioned it before? He's been holding out."
"We destroyed the original when we hit their homeworld. He says he didn't think they could put another one together. They've never had two at once, ever."
WarAvocat knew little about the biology of the methane breathers. He did not care. They were the enemy. Their biology signified only when it could be used against them.
He did not accept Seeker's claim. He had known. Brood masses had to be the reason he'd been so keen to get a Guardship out here....
Dammit! He'd turned the Ku loose for nothing. Seeker could have gotten them here if only they had had sense enough to ask the right questions.
The Meddinians had high moral pretensions. No matter the pragmatic necessity they'd never admit a desire for genocide. They would not want to take the guilt back home.
His rider force was too weak. The Outsiders forced it back, launched a counterattack VII Gemina repelled with difficulty.
WarAvocat feared he had been too optimistic. Or maybe he had been suckered again, if Kez Maefele had sent the Guardship to its destruction.
That would be the perfect solution from his point of view, wouldn't it? Let VII Gemina be destroyed finishing the Godspeaker threat so he would have no enemies left over.