Part 61 (1/2)

And on Telthorst's face was a look of absolute horror.

Beside Chandris, Kosta was muttering something wordless over and over again. A few seconds later, and the s.h.i.+p nearly vanished in the glare behind the sudden flash of brilliance as Angelma.s.s burned its way out the near side. The station's suns.h.i.+elds activated; and on the telescope display, right at the edge of the artificial black spot marking Angelma.s.s's position, Chandris could see the charred hull metal flowing like ash-filled water as Angelma.s.s's tidal forces ripped apart its molecular structure. Again the big s.h.i.+p moved ponderously around in the grip of the black hole's gravitational field, the bow turning with a sense of fatalism back into its executioner's path. Again the metal of the hull broke and flowed, further forward this time, and again Angelma.s.s casually burned its way through and disappeared inside.

Lles.h.i.+ could feel the chair starting to melt beneath him as he looked across the bridge balcony one last time. Telthorst was sitting there, his face contorted almost beyond recognition. ”You were wrong about one other thing, Mr. Telthorst,” he managed over the screams of the Komitadji's final death throes. ”I won't live to regret it, after all.”

It seemed to go on forever, a nightmare of death and awesome destruction. Angelma.s.s went in and out at least three more times, like a needle tracing an intricate path for its following thread.

And when it finally emerged for the last time, the s.h.i.+p had been crushed and twisted and warped nearly beyond recognition.

Kosta's hand on her arm made her jump. ”Come on, Chandris,” he said quietly, his eyes still staring in dull horror at the view. ”Come on. Let's go home.”

CHAPTER 45.

”The purpose of this meeting,” High Senator Forsythe said, gazing steadily across the Government

Building conference room table at Kosta, ”is to figure out exactly what we're going to do with you.”

His gaze s.h.i.+fted to Kosta's right, where Chandris sat beside him, then to his left, to Hanan and Ornina Daviee. ”With all of you,” he amended.

”I'm sorry, but I really don't see the problem,” Ornina spoke up, a bit hesitantly. ”Jereko has already

said he wants to stay in the Empyrean. Why can't we just let him?”

Beside Forsythe, Pirbazari stirred. ”It's not quite that simple, Miss Daviee,” he said. ”Mr. Kosta is a self-confessed Pax spy, and the three of you knew it. That can't just be swept into a corner.”

”Why not?” Hanan asked. ”I mean, he did help us figure out what was happening to Angelma.s.s. Surely that alone saved a lot of lives. Not to mention that he and Chandris got that big Pax wars.h.i.+p off our backs.”

”Wrecking Angelma.s.s Central in the process,” Pirbazari murmured.

”It would have been destroyed anyway,” Chandris pointed out. ”You didn't see what Angelma.s.s was doing out there.”Actually, we have done a quick review of the monitor tapes you brought back,” Forsythe said. ”I think it's fair to say the station would indeed have been lost.”

”So again, what's the problem?” Hanan asked. ”Jereko's proved he's on our side.”

”Are we not getting through here?” Pirbazari demanded. ”The problem is that he's an agent of a

government we're at war with.””Was an agent,” Hanan corrected.

”Legally irrelevant,” Pirbazari shot back. ”And unproven besides.”

”Unproven?” Hanan echoed. ”Then what-”

”Hanan,” Ornina admonished him, putting a warning hand on his arm.

Hanan patted her hand rea.s.suringly. ”All right, then,” he said in a more reasonable tone. ”Why not

let him defect? There must be provision for something like that in the legal code.”

Forsythe made a face. ”Actually... there isn't.”

Kosta stared at him. ”You're kidding.”

”I've been through the whole code, edge to binding and back again,” Forsythe said, shaking his head.

”The people who wrote the Covenants a hundred eighty years ago never expected us to be anything more than a single confederation of a few worlds all alone in the middle of deep s.p.a.ce. With nowhere to defect to or from, the topic somehow never came up.”

”Well, obviously, that needs to be changed,” Hanan said. ”How do we do that?”

”We don't do anything,” Forsythe said pointedly. ”What I do is introduce a bill in the High Senate. Unfortunately, the process takes time; and meanwhile, Mr. Kosta is still an agent of the Pax.””And the Covenants do make provision for enemies of the Empyrean,” Pirbazari said.At one side of the table, seated where he could see everyone's mouth, Ronyon began signing. ”I would love to,” Forsythe told him. ”But that decision isn't up to me. Or anyone else in the Empyrean.”

”What did he say?” Kosta asked.

”He asked why we couldn't just stop the war,” Forsythe translated. ”In that case, you wouldn't be an enemy and you could stay here.”

”Makes sense to me,” Ornina murmured.

”Wait a minute,” Kosta said, frowning. ”Is it really that simple? If we weren't at war with the Pax would that solve the problem?”

Forsythe gazed across the table at him, forehead wrinkled with thought. ”Not entirely,” he said at

last. ”But it would certainly be a start. The automatic categorization of you as an enemy of the

Empyrean would become moot, and we could s.h.i.+ft the focus purely to your various activities here.”