“Yes,” Banstegeyn said, biting his lip a little. “And they definitely couldn’t have already — the people, the AIs even, on the HQ — they couldn’t have Sublimed by themselves, early? That’s really not possible?”
“The people, definitely not; you need a Presence,” the marshal said, with the air of one addressing somebody who really ought to have been watching their own infomercials over the last umpteen years. “The AIs, almost certainly not. It takes time, preparation. Even for an AI there’s some sort of blissed-out, trance-like state that has to be achieved first before they can haul themselves in by their own bootstraps. Unlikely, in the circumstances.”
“Mmm, mmm,” the septame said, rubbing his face. “Good, good.” He had been looking away. “So the attack, it could be blamed on somebody else?”
The marshal took a moment before answering. “Yes, it could,” she said, slowly. “Though the plausibility spectrum might be a little…” she looked up to the domed ceiling of the room “… restricted, shall we say?” She looked back at the septame. “Why, did you have anybody particular in mind?”
“The Ronte?”
“The Ronte?” the marshal said. She frowned. “I thought we just made them our official Bestest Friends, Scavenger class.”
“I think you’ll find that is still conditional.”
“In a way that they don’t know about?”
Banstegeyn waved one hand. “Not your concern, Marshal. Is it plausible?”
Chekwri sat back, looked thoughtful. “Not really. Their main force is far too far away — unlikely even to get here before the Subliming — their tech is inadequate and their motive… I can’t even think what their motive might have been.”
“The Ronte with Culture help?” Banstegeyn suggested.
The marshal actually laughed. “Forgive me, Septame,” she said, one hand held out to Banstegeyn, though nothing else about her demeanour seemed apologetic. “Well, that would fill the tech gap, if we can put it that way, but I suspect the plausibility spectrum window just closed to zero.”
“No story we come up with needs to last very long, though,” Banstegeyn said, his face set in an expression of some displeasure. “Just until the Subliming.”
“Septame, one like that is going to struggle to last to the end of the sentence that first articulates it.”
“But there might have been a Culture ship there, at the Sculpt planet,” the septame said.
“The Uagren was aware of something performing a manoeuvre called a crash-stop into Izenion system, about four hours after the attack. Just from the implied initial velocity involved it reckoned if it wasn’t one of ours it must be a Culture ship. Even then, hard to find a plausible contender. Most likely it was something called the Mistake Not…, but if it was, the fucker’s even faster than we thought.”
“So we could — maybe — claim it had a part in the attack, couldn’t we?”
“Not really. Unless the Culture has finally invented a time machine.”
The septame’s face suddenly assumed a hard, unforgiving expression. “I don’t think,” he said icily, “this is an issue to be made light of, Marshal Chekwri.”
“Septame,” the marshal said levelly, “I am not the one coming up with laughable ex-post-facto combat scenarios.”
Banstegeyn glared at her for a little longer, seemed to realise he was wasting his time, waved one arm dismissively and said, “Well, leave that with me. But let’s not close anything off.” He took a deep breath. “The main thing is that the initial mission was successful. The leak has been… mopped up.”
“There is the… possible loose end of the Gelish-Oplule,” Chekwri said, with a tiny frown.
“But it was destroyed too, wasn’t it?”
“Just; that was too close. The Uagren wasn’t expecting it. But, yes, one less asset for the Fourteenth.”
“Well, then. Why is there a problem?”
“Because the ship wasn’t supposed to be there. And the fact that it was means it was keeping quiet about its movements and it must have moved to get there at the sort of speeds ships only undertake when they’ve got an urgent mission. Trans-excercisal speeds; you sim them but you don’t attempt them, even during full-on war games.”
“It might have been coincidence,” Banstegeyn said. “Or it was there for the High Command if they needed transport.”
“That’s kind of what we’re assuming for now,” Chekwri said. She shrugged. “Anyway, it’s vapour, and the Culture ship’s moved off seemingly without actually doing anything. And now the Uagren’s slipped away too, unnoticed as far as we know.”
“Yes. Where did it slip away to? Where’s it going now?”
“Didn’t I mention?” The marshal looked surprised. “It’s following the Culture ship.”
Eleven
(S -17)
xGSV Contents May Differ
oLOU Caconym
oGCU Displacement Activity
oGSV Just The Washing Instruction Chip In Life’s Rich Tapestry
oUe Mistake Not…
oMSV Passing By And Thought I’d Drop In
oMSV Pressure Drop
Hello all. I think we’ve all been brought up to speed with individual briefings where needed; welcome to the new members of the group. We understand the Mistake Not… makes full speed to Ospin, perhaps to discover something relevant to Mr QiRia and hence the claimed provenance of the Z-R information re the BoT. Meanwhile the Passing By And Thought I’d Drop In has kindly agreed to continue to create what diplomatic pressure it can with the rump of the Gzilt political power structure. For myself, after extensive investigations, some calling in of favours and the reluctant acceptance of future obligations re the same on my part to those so confiding, I have discovered there may be another way to pursue the link with the legendary gentleman.
∞
xLOU Caconym
We really are taking this person’s existence as being a fact, not a myth?
∞
xGSV Contents May Differ
We are. It turns out that the myth which has been so carefully fostered is that his existence is mythical. It would certainly appear that various ships have known of his existence over the millennia, and even aided him in his efforts to stay outside the public eye and evade the kind of official annoyances such as censuses and inventories which might prove problematic to somebody of preposterous age who wished to keep quiet about it. Until now his mythical status has seemed charming, romantic even, and — happily for all concerned — irrelevant to matters either tactical or strategic. Now, it has suddenly assumed a certain importance. We must, of course, diligently and timeously pursue every avenue of investigation occurring in Gzilt space. However, there may well be a way to reinforce and back up our inquiries, working at least partly within the Culture. I have been in contact with a vessel which wishes to remain anonymous for now but which holds a human who may be able and persuaded to help. The price would be something close to full disclosure of what we all know regarding the matter at hand, both to the ship and, probably, it speculates, the person concerned as well.
∞
xGSV Just The Washing Instruction Chip In Life’s Rich Tapestry