Yakov looked up from his armrest. A small screen was embedded there. He’d been scrolling through something, reading data. “I’d forgotten,” he whispered to Marten out of the side of his mouth. “Our Strategist is the Chief Controller’s cousin.”
“Will that make a difference?” Marten whispered.
Yakov glanced at the main screen, and he rubbed his jaw so his hand partly covered his mouth. “Callisto law is firm, and there are few children among the governors. I doubt Su-Shan has any other relatives in the same generation. Yes. It is important.”
“Bring the Strategist into view,” Su-Shan was saying. “I would speak with her.”
Marten cleared his throat. “I’d gladly do it, but she’s presently under Suspend.” Suspend slowed all biological functions, putting its recipient into a hibernating state.
Su-Shan’s beautiful features turned pasty. “Barbarians,” she whispered. “You shall….” With a small finger, she rubbed the inner corner of her left eye as if removing a speck. Then she glared at them, and her eyes glistened. “Revive her at once. Let me speak to her face to face.”
“First,” said Yakov in his normally calm manner, “you must postpone the bombardment.”
“A Chief Controller cannot be blackmailed,” Su-Shan said slowly.
Yakov shook his head. “No blackmail is intended. We simply wish to prove our point, to prove the validity of our argument.”
“Yes,” Su-Shan whispered. “I will grant you an extension. Now hurry, bring me my cousin—I mean, revive Strategist Tan this instant.”
-5-
Small Strategist Tan lay nude on a medical slab with a med-officer hovering over her. He removed a tube from her side and sprayed the wound with quickheal. He had drained much of Tan’s blood, heating it and pumping it back into her. Then he had shocked her several times. Each shock had caused her to jerk and her thighs to quiver.
Finished spraying, the med-officer draped a thin blanket over Tan’s nakedness.
Tan shuddered suddenly and inhaled sharply. The monitor-board clicked, beeped and flashed lights and various numbers. The med-officer observed them as he studied Tan. She eased into a relaxed position and breathed normally. Then her fingers twitched and her eyelids snapped open.
“Lie still,” said the med-officer. He wore a yellow smock, with a yellow cap over his round head. He had soft hands and stroked her nearest arm, which lay on the blanket.
Tan blinked at him, and she frowned.
“You can’t talk yet,” he said. “Your mind is thawing. You’ll be fine in several minutes.”
It seemed as if she wanted to answer. She stared up at him. Her blinks were earnest and her eyes straining.
Marten watched the proceeding. The entire situation was a mess. The Confederation’s philosophical rulers were odd and strangely blind for people who prided themselves on using reason to solve each problem. Instead, it seemed as if they’d cut themselves off from their humanity, or as if they’d failed to consider their emotions. Thinking to become wise, they’d become foolish in bizarre ways. People weren’t creatures of cold reason, although people could reason. For instance, why did a man fall in love with a woman? Did that have anything to do with reason? No. It was passion, desire—it was a basic need that erupted with volcanic power.
Marten shook his head. The odds this time were piling against him. Callisto had more warships. The cyborgs had even more. The Secessionists side was the weakest of all. Maybe Osadar had it right. They should flee to Saturn and start over.
“Where am I?” whispered Tan.
“You’re aboard the Descartes,” the med-officer said. “You’re in the medical room.”
“I can’t remember what happened,” she whispered.
“It will come back to you.”
“Was I sick?”
“No.” The med-officer glanced at Marten.
Marten shook his head.
“Then why—” Tan groaned, and she strained to sit up.
The med-officer gently pressed her against the slab. “Wait a few more minutes.”
“The barbarians pumped me full of Suspend,” Tan whispered. “I have to warn—” Tan stopped talking as she lifted her head and spotted Marten.
“You’re helping them,” Tan accused the med-officer. “You will be demoted for this, possibly mind-scrubbed and sent to Io.”
The med-officer removed his hands from her, stepped back and glanced at Marten.
Marten eased near. “Your cousin is online, wishing to talk with you.”
“Su-Shan?” asked Tan.
“There have been a few changes,” Marten said. He told her about recent events.
Tan sat up groggily as she wrapped the blanket around her. “If what you say is true, why would Su-Shan order a bombardment of the Galileo Regio?”
“You can ask her,” Marten said, trying to forget that she was naked underneath the blanket.
Tan rubbed her face. When she lowered her hand and turned to the med-officer, she said, “I need a drink and something to eat.”
He gave her a bottle and some wafers. Once finished eating, she slid onto the deckplates and leaned against the med-slab for support.
“I need some clothes,” Tan said.
“Yes,” said the med-officer. “I’ll get them.”
“Are you under duress?” Su-Shan asked. She spoke through a wall-screen in Octagon’s former chamber.
Marten sat behind the desk. Osadar stood to the side. Strategist Tan faced the wall-screen.
“I am in the Arbiter’s room,” Tan said. “No one points at gun at me and no one has threatened me. But they did kidnap me from my quarters and hold me hostage under Suspend.” She glanced at Marten. “However, I no longer sense hostile intentions.”
“How can I be sure of that?” Su-Shan asked.
“Do the bands of Jupiter leak into space?” Tan asked.
A quick grin flashed across Su-Shan’s face.
Marten wondered what that signified. Was the phrase a code sequence?
“Where is Force-Leader Yakov?” Su-Shan asked.
“He’s indisposed,” Marten said.
“Ah,” said Su-Shan. “You mean he is busy plotting with the other ingrates. We shall soon break into their signals, never fear. Now, I demand that you escort Tan to Callisto.”
“First we must come to an understanding about the cyborgs,” Marten said.
Su-Shan hesitated. “What is your analysis concerning these cyborgs?” she asked Tan.
“The one standing in the room with me is real,” Tan said.
“Does that mean the others exist?” asked Su-Shan.
“It doesn’t have to follow,” Tan said. “Still, I think something odd has occurred in our system.”
“Yes,” said Su-Shan, “the rebellion.”
Tan shook her head. “I do not believe that Yakov planned open rebellion.”
Su-Shan minutely tilted her head as she studied her cousin. “The fact of their successful rebellion means they have planned it for some time. Therefore, Yakov did plan it.”
“Agreed,” said Tan. “What I meant to say is that Yakov did not plan to begin the rebellion this soon.”
“How do you know that?”
“Since boarding this vessel, I have monitored his messages. I have also conferred many times with the ship’s Arbiter. He was like a living stick-tight and searched for rebellion with unusual zeal. He had his suspicions, naturally, but never the proof.”
“Yet the rebellion occurred,” said Su-Shan. “Therefore, you failed to—”
“If I may,” Tan said, “I disagree with your overall analysis—I am inferring portions of your beliefs, that’s true, but I have ingested the thrust of your argument. You and I both know that system-wide oddities have occurred independently of the Secessionist Plot. We have both spoken about the strange events before this. We first suspected the Secessionists, and that is why I boarded the Descartes. After seeing one cyborg with my own eyes and witnessing further odd occurrences, I have begun to believe that cyborgs have indeed invaded our system.”