Part 93 (1/2)

e) The opportunity for major gains by political opposition during the interregnum of your guardians, and the death and defeat of various of my own allies in the interim, will likely effect the rise of major new political forces, some of whom may well be radically Abolitionist. I predict that within a decade or so of my death Mikhail Corain will be viewed as too moderate to control his own allies, and it is foreseeable that a more radical figure will unseat him, possibly changing the Centrists considerably. Particularly look to the effects of your own emergence into public life. I had enemies. You will face opposition which may have superst.i.tious roots, in fear of the unknown, in fear of you as a political force, and in fear of what the science which brought you into being could mean-to a society only recently adapting to rejuv. Uncertainty of any sort creates demagogues.

f) A major new discovery of non-human intelligence might destabilize the situation I left, and might come at any time. I urge you press for expansion in safe areas and for necessary precaution against hostile contact. We do not know our time limits and we are scarcely stable enough in my time to deal with that eventuality.

g) There may be major divergences from my policies inside Reseune, and there exists the chance that you have either made personal enemies on-staff or that you are perceived as standing for policies others oppose.

h) A major breakdown could occur within a designed azi population, or there may be major difficulties in CIT-azi integrations within a given population. I hope this does not come to pa.s.s, but my best estimate of a problem area would be Pan-Paris, where economic constraints and military retirees may pose hards.h.i.+ps: next most likely: Novgorod, in the third generation . . . where the old rebel ethos of the founders of Union may well find difficulty mixing with the Const.i.tution-venerating descendants of the wartime worker-azi, and where population pressures and Cyteen's ability to terraform new habitat on that site may run a narrow race indeed.

I hope time has proven me wrong in some of these things.

But I urge you to study these situations and to prepare responses to them, before you make any move on your own.

Avoid precipitate action: by this I mean, don't be too quick to take what you're not ready for; don't be so late that you have to move hastily and without adequate groundwork.

Power of any kind lays heavy responsibility on you; and it changes your friends as it changes the way your friends regard you. Do not be naive in this regard. Do not a.s.sume. Do not overburden your friends with too much trust.

Above all remember what I said in the beginning: respect the power of public opinion.

NewsScan shows mention of you: 3 articles in last 3 months.

Mention of Giraud Nye: 189 articles in last 3 months.

Mention of Mikhail Corain: 276 articles in last 3 months.

Mention of Reseune: 597 articles in last 3 months.

Mention of Paxers: 1058 articles in last 3 months.

Continue?

AE2: Base One, give me the nature, location, and time of Ari senior's last entry into the House system.

B/1: Working.

Entry by TransSlate; 1004A, 2404: 10/22: 1808.

AE2: Give me the location and time of Ari senior's death.

B/1: Working.

1004A.

Autopsy ruling: 2404: 10/22: 1800 to 1830 approximate.

AE2: 1004A is the cold lab in Wing One bas.e.m.e.nt. Correct?

B/1: Correct.

AE2: Who else has accessed this information?

B/1: No prior access.

AE2: Replay entry.

B/1: Working.

Order: Security 10: Com interrupt: Jordan Warrick, all outgoing calls. Claim malfunction. Order good until canceled.

AE2: Base One, is that the last entry from Ari from any source?

B/1: Working.

Affirmative.

AE2: Base One, at what time did Jordan Warrick enter Wing One bas.e.m.e.nt security door on 10/22, 2404?

B/1: Working.

Wing One bas.e.m.e.nt security door coded 14. Jordan Warrick's key accessed D14 at 1743 hours, that date.

AE2: Departure, same visit?

B/1: 1808 hours, that date: duration of visit: 25 minutes. . . .

AE2: Record current session to Personal Archive. Give me the full transcript, Autopsy, Ariane Emory; all records, Jordan Warrick, keyword: Emory, keyword: trial; keyword: murder; keyword, hearings; keyword: Council; keyword: investigation.

CHAPTER 14.

i ”The first bill on the agenda is number 6789, for the Bureau of Trade,” Nasir Harad said, ”Ludmilla deFranco, Simon Jacques co-sponsors, proposing restructuring of the Pan-Paris credit system. Call for debate.”

”Citizens,” Mikhail Corain said, lifting his hand. ”For the bill.”

”Finance,” Chavez said. ”For the bill.”

”Move to forgo debate,” Harogo said, ”in the absence of opposition.”

Corain cast a look down the table, toward Nye, who had reached for his water gla.s.s.

It was a bargain, the time-saving sort. The acquiescence of the Expansionists in the move designed to take pressure off the ailing Pan-Paris central bank, the promise of military contracts, the private a.s.surance that Reseune would grant more time on the considerable sum Pan-Paris owed-of course it would: Pan-Paris was Lao's central const.i.tuency and the bill was the first step in a long-proposed settlement on the Wyatt's Paradise-Pan-Paris loop that called for a fusion-powered station at Maronne Point, where there was only dark ma.s.s, but enough to pull a s.h.i.+p in.

There were four bills lined up, Expansionists falling all over themselves after decades of opposition, finally diverting funds from the slow construction of Hope to the more immediate difficulties of home s.p.a.ce and a trade loop that had gotten, since the War, d.a.m.nably short of exportable commodities.

Major construction, finally, beyond the rebuilding of stations damaged in Azov's desperate push in the last stages of the War; beyond the endless restructurings of debt and adjustments necessary when the merchanters a.s.sociated into Alliance and left Union banks holding enormous debt.

Seventy years later, a policy s.h.i.+ft to save that trade loop became possible only because the special interests that had blocked it suddenly discovered there was nothing left to do.

”Move to suspend debate,” Harad said in his usual mutter. ”Second?”