"And?"
"And it's a crashing funny-looking place, isn't it?" She touched the inlay on her desk again and Eric, almost involuntarily, looked toward the central screen. The monitor showed an extremely out-of-scale representation of a binary system; a golden primary star looming over a white dwarf. Eric watched their gentle motion. He could remember his father's stories of his father's delight at the discovery of that companion. It confirmed the Teacher's assertion that the sun, the suns, were Garismit's Eyes watching the Realm, as the stars were the eyes of the Nameless, watching from afar.
At the edge of the screen hovered a lopsided planet, rotating gently to display a surface of bare, radiation-burned rock. If he watched long enough, Eric knew, it would eventually display a blur of cloud cover held in place by a ragged circle of mountain. The Realm of the Nameless Powers.
"Just sits there, doesn't it?" said Ross, resting her elbows on the desk. "All on its own, in a steady orbit around a binary star. No moon, no other planets, not even a gas giant or two for company."
"Madame Chairman, what are you getting at?" Eric said in a strangled tone.
"I mean the Unifiers make it their business to hunt down unknown worlds. We're very good at it…but your world…this arrangement is so manifestly unlikely for the production or support of human life that we didn't even bother to look at it. It was an accident that we found your people at all. One of our spotters calibrated a probe incorrectly."
Her voice was steady but her eyes practically glowed with eagerness. "You know, there's only one world we've searched for that we couldn't find."
"Which is?" Eric tried to keep himself under control. Let Madame Chairman lead him along. Let her play her game out. When she was finished, he would still be standing here and she would have his answer in full.
"The Evolution Point for the Human Family," she said. "We have been looking for three centuries now and we have come up empty, haven't we? After three centuries." She spread her hands. "I think I know why."
Eric said nothing, he just let her go on.
"Dorias told me that your mythology is founded around the idea that a servant of the gods moved the world to a safe location." She smiled so wide that he could see her teeth. They were white, clean, and as even as the lines of the Hangar Cliffs. "I think they didn't just move it, I think they hid it." She nodded toward the screen again.
"Madame Chairman"—Eric did not let himself look at the screen—"why would anybody want to hide the Evolution Point?"
"To keep it from the Rhudolant Vitae?" she said archly. "Or their ancestors. I can't say for certain, can I? We haven't got an overall history of the Quarter Galaxy for ten years ago, let alone three thousand. We do, however, know that engineering a planetary orbit was possible for someone, at some time." She pointed meaningfully at the ground.
Eric could feel her assurance reaching out to him, as palpable as the touch of a hand.
"You see what it means, don't you? No one even vaguely connected with the Family would willingly let the Vitae lay sole and whole claim to the Evolution Point and the people on it. Since the Shessel were discovered, safe and sound on their own Evolution Point, there has been a reemergence of interest in the Family for finding ours. Sar Born, speak for your people, the Guardians of the Evolution Point, and you give us all a real fighting chance against the biggest stopping block to the reunion of Human Family. You could put the Vitae back in their place, just by speaking out."
"And if I don't," said Eric, "then what?"
She spread her hands. "Then nothing, Sar Born. You have the use of the room and will have use of all the nets as soon as your IDs are cleared. You are my guest. I, on the other hand, am Chairman of the Unifiers and I will harry the Vitae in whatever way I can until I find out what it is they are trying to do. Why, for instance, they are kidnapping natives from MG49 sub 1."
Eric's mind reeled and his sense of balance finally failed. Forgetting pride, he collapsed into the nearest chair. Ross didn't take her attention off him. Despite that, he curled his fists around his palms and pressed his knuckles against his trouser legs. He remembered looking toward First City's walls and thinking if you will break the law, I will break it more grandly and more permanently than you ever could, and wishing his father could hear him, and then he remembered the tears that mixed with the icy rain, because part of him still wanted to run home and find out that none of what he had seen had happened.
He stared at the smooth, unmarked backs of his hands and fought to remember it had been ten years since he had told the Realm to go drown itself. Ten years of making his own life unburdened by the laws of the Nameless and the conflicts they bred. It was a freedom he could not, would not, just toss aside.
"Madame Chairman, I don't speak for anyone in the Realm. I left there and I have no intention of going back, or of getting myself caught up in whatever war you want to fight with the Vitae. I have business of my own to take care of that will use up my personal resources. I thank you for your hospitality and I hope I shall not have to impose on you for long. I shall pay for what I use, I assure you." He stood and found his knees held steady.
Ross pressed both palms flat against her desk top. "There is one other thing of which you should be aware, Sar Born."
Eric held himself still. "Which is?"
"Two unifiers, good people, friends of mine, died when the Vitae kidnapped your kinswoman."
Eric almost said "she's not my kin," but he stopped himself in time.
"There are Trustees and Board members here who want to publicize what those two died for. Do you have any idea what will happen to you, and to your world, if I let them?"
"I am sure, Madame Chairman, you will do exactly as you see fit whenever you see fit," said Eric. "And that there is nothing I could do or say to stop you.
"May I go now?"
He had to give her credit; she had obviously prepared herself for this possibility. She did nothing more than lean back in an attitude of resignation and wave toward the door.
"You are a free individual, Sar Born, you may come and go as you like. I have no claim on you. Especially since you say you will pay for what you use. One of my clerks will see that your debts are totaled and sent to your room."
Eric left. Behind him, Ross must have given notice that he was coming out, because the security man was waiting to remove his patches and the floor indicators were lit up with the way back to the courtyard clearly marked. An auto waited for him with the door raised.
He climbed in. The door closed. It was then he realized he had no planet ID to enter to make the thing move.
Eric leaned back in the seat, closed his eyes and began to curse. He did it slowly and methodically, using all the blasphemies in all the languages he knew. He even added some he hadn't heard since he'd been a student in the Temple. By the time he was finished, the entire complement of the Unifiers, and the Rhudolant Vitae, and their ancestors back seven generations had been manned, rendered impotent, ripped away from the shelter of any divinity, accused of bestiality, and blasted headfirst into the marshes the Notouch used for toilets.
A slight vibration trembled the soles of his shoes and the car began to move.
Eric's head jerked up. A voice spoke over the intercom. "Can't leave you alone for a moment, can I?"
"Dorias." A wave of relief washed over him followed fast by a wave of anger. "Dorias, were you listening to what your Madame Chairman said?"
"I was. We'll talk when we get to your room. I'm making it safe for us now."
They gave me a bugged room? Eric began cursing through his teeth. The Vitae first, now the Unifiers. Who do these people think they are?