'Really?
'Yes. Really.
Ethan wondered if he should challenge the representative directly, but couldn't see any advantage in that. 'What was your ship doing stealthed in orbit around Ellezelin?
'It was waiting for the Pilgrimage ships to be completed, then it would deliver the consignment of defence systems in its hold.
As you can understand, we don't want them sitting on the ground exposed to ANA's scrutiny.
A smooth enough answer, and one which Ethan didn't believe for an instant. 'I see.
'Neither do we want ANA to examine the remnants.
'That is completely outside my remit.
'My dear Conservator, if ANA uses the defence systems our ship was carrying as an excuse to curtail our involvement with your Pilgrimage, there will not be any Pilgrimage. And that is exactly the kind of pseudo-legal argument that so many people will seize upon.
'But I can't do anything. We can hardly attack that ship.
'A friend of mine will be in touch within the hour. She can explain to your wormhole technicians how they can assist our cause. Marius closed the link.
'Dear Lady, Ethan put his head in his hands. Events were becoming too powerful, building their own inertia. He tried to remember why he'd agreed to the representative's help in the first place. Ultradrive was turning into the ultimate poisoned chalice. But even if he reverted to equipping the Pilgrimage ships with an ordinary hyperdrive they'd still need help to get past the warrior Raiel in the Gulf. There was nothing he could do but try and ride the crisis out.
If we just had the Second Dreamer we'd be in much stronger position. She's the key to success. We have to acquire her. We have to, no matter what the cost.
The ExoProtectorate Council watched the new squadron of Capital-class ships matching superluminal flight vectors with the Ocisen Empire fleet. Five of the Navy ships were concentrating their sensors on a single Prime warship, preparing to pull it out of hyperspace.
'This habit is turning into a vulgar repetition, Ilanthe said, her voice silky with disdain.
Kazimir hadn't realized before now how much he missed
Gore at the council; his grandfather was a perfect balance against the Accelerator advocate. More accurately, Gore wouldn't put up with her bullshit point scoring and needling.
Crispen gave her a small grin. 'Ever wondered what kind of effect these snatch raids are having on the Ocisens? I mean, their most powerful allies are being pulled out of space and shot without any warning. Can't be good for morale.
'Don't compare the Ocisen psychology to ours, Creewan warned. 'Obedience to the nest father is their paramount concern, in fact it's their only concern. They don't question and worry away at issues like we do.
'Which makes this interception even more pointless, Ilanthe said. 'They can't be rattled. They're not going to turn round even if we eliminate every Prime ship there is.
'I'm not eliminating them, Kazimir said levelly. 'I want a living immotile.
'What? John Thelwell demanded. 'I thought this was the final final warning, not some capture mission.
Kazimir met Ilanthe's gaze across the conference table. The lightning outside the big curving window stroked their faces with sharp slivers of flickering light. 'It is the final warning. To her credit she didn't flinch, but then he didn't expect her to. Less than an hour ago, Paula had reported in that the ice moon Accelerator station had been destroyed by a quantumbuster. Kazimir was mildly surprised Ilanthe had turned up to the ExoProtectorate Council at all. She must know the indomitable investigator was getting close to the kind of evidence ANA needed to suspend the Accelerators.
'What in heaven's name do you want with an immotile? Creewan asked.
'Intelligence, Kazimir said. 'We need to know where they come from, which planet or planets they've colonized. Ship numbers. Technology level. Once the Ocisens are eliminated by the deterrence fleet they will be the Navy's next target.
'Glad to hear it, John Thelwell said.
'Yes, said Kazimir. 'It will be interesting to find out how they avoided the Firewall. He still didn't get a reaction from Ilanthe.
The Navy ships yanked a single Prime warship out of hyper-space. Kazimir followed the engagement closely. He couldn't fault the captains, their strategy was flawless, subjecting the warship's force field to inexorable stress. When the force field finally collapsed, weapons fire against the hull was minimal. They went for electronic warfare, scrambling electronics and knocking out power circuits with quantum magnetic pulses. All at a level that wouldn't interfere with Prime nervous systems. Even with life support equipment knocked out, there was enough air and warmth for the living Primes to survive until they were captured.
Ten marine assault teams got ready to jump across.
The Prime warship exploded.
'Shit, Kazimir grunted.
'I trust this charade is concluded to your satisfaction, Ilanthe said. 'Admiral, will you now be launching the deterrence fleet in compliance with the Senate Executive Security Commission resolution?
Creewan and John Thelwell watched closely.
'Yes, Kazimir said. 'I will order the launch of the deterrence fleet immediately. And what have you put out there to snare it? What are you up to?
Ilanthe's female persona translocated out of the old fashioned perceptual reality of the conference room. She reformed herself in a completely different zone of ANA, the Accelerator compilation, that manifested as an inverted world of dark primary colours. She walked across a verdure sky as a heliotrope ocean rippled above her. Airborne wisps of kingfisher-blue light slithered around her, winking in complex sequences designating their sentience leveclass="underline" mirrored personality repositories performing designated secondary tasks while the primary mentality operated on an upper hierarchal level. Her body characteristics morphed away to a simple flawless silver skin, and her own repositories fluttered in, perching themselves on her shoulders and arms like birds of prey. Information squeezed in through the data porous boundary skin.
First analysis was of the Ellezelin interception. Every surviving physical section of Chatfield's starship was encapsulated by trajectory algorithms extrapolated and refined from Ellezelin's monstrously crude orbital sensor arrays. The flight of the eighty thousand scraps of matter were defined in a four-dimensional projection resembling a particularly beautiful scarlet firework scintillation bloom.
Origin point analysis designated the critical segments of the equipment Chatfield had been carrying. Exotic matter fragments were already decaying as their cohesion integrity was broken. But sufficient pieces survived; it would be possible to determine the interstice folds contained within them before their decay sequence fizzled to extinction. ANA might be capable of retro-profiling the nature of the equipment, and that would ruin everything.
Two more blank humanoid shapes walked across the sky. Fellow Accelerators, Colabal and Atha. Ilanthe transferred the trajectory construct to them. 'Supervise the wormhole interception yourself, she told Atha. 'It will need to be speedy, the ANA agent will see what's happening and instigate a hyperspacial distortion. You will need to collect seven thousand fragments.
'Confirmed, Atha said. The figure reversed its dimensions to zero and translocated.
'Is the replica functioning? Ilanthe asked Colabal.
'Yes. The sky beneath their feet began to undulate, its tempo increasing rapidly as if thin storm clouds were speeding past. A section glowed with a pale amber hue. Ilanthe immersed herself into it.
One of the accelerator agents that Colabal ran had collected a sample of Araminta's DNA from the Colwyn City apartment block. The sequencing had provided the Accelerators with enough information to formulate Araminta's neural structure.