With no further word of farewell, still laughing softly and rubbing his hands, the figure of Ao Aoen glided away on soft steps. The noise of voices and motion in the Inquest Chamber
briefly grew louder as the tall doors opened and closed. Phaethon had a glimpse of a long chamber, lit by massive windows of stained glass, of tiers of benches rising to either side, of a central dais hung with flags and bunting of blue and silver. Then the door closed again, and Ao Aoen was gone.
Helion stepped up behind Phaethon. 'I heard what you said, my son. It is not true.'
Phaethon turned. Helion was now dressed in a sober black costume, a long-tailed coat, a stiff collar, a black silk top hat.
'What is not true?'
'That you cannot drop the law case. The Curia would certainly prefer for us to reach an out-of-court settlement, should we fashion one, than to make a ruling. It is also not true that you shall possess once again and rebuild your starship or your dream, or that you will conquer the stars. Pandora kept hope at the bottom of her box because it was the most dreadful of the plagues the gods visited on suffering mankind. A moment ago, neither you nor I had any hope; we both thought we were doomed; and our best instincts came to the forefront. If we must be parted, my son, let us be parted on those terms of camaraderie and familial love. Instead, this hope of yours will set us at each other's throats again.'
Phaethon was not daunted. 'Relic of Helion, I know from Daphne's diary what you have been doing in the locked chambers of the Rhadamanthus mind. You've been living Helion Prime's death over and over again, trying to recapture the epiphany he had. The Curia has not released all the records to you, has it? They know what changed his heart, and would have changed his life forever, had he lived.'
'I am he. Do not doubt that.'
'But you are not living as he would have lived, had he lived.'
'He lives in me and I am Helion. You know this to be true! Come now: accept Ao Aoen's offer, and I will repay you every shilling you wasted on that grotesque ship of yours, so that you will have as great a fortune as you had after the failed Saturn project.'
'Impossible. I will not give up my starship. The matter is beyond debate.'
'You have no starship; it is gone. Preserve what life remains to you, I beg you.'
'I have a counteroffer.'
'You have nothing with which to bargain. Accept your fate. All living things eventually are conquered by life, can't you see that? Even Utopias cannot preserve us from pain.'
'My offer is this: I will tell you what Helion Prime was thinking as he died.'
Helion was mute, eyes wide.
Phaethon said: 'You will be able to fashion yourself to think like him; the Curia will be convinced that you are Helion in truth. In return you pay my debts and fund the first flight of the starship?' He broke off.
There was a haunted expression on Helion's face. Phaethon was startled. Somehow, Phaethon knew; the look in his father's eyes told him.
Helion did not deeply care what the Curia thought. It was he. Helion himself was not sure who he was. He was desperate to reconstruct, remember, or somehow find the missing hour of memories. It was the only way he could confirm to himself that he was Helion in truth. Helion said: 'How could you know?' 'Because I have just now remembered when I was aboard the Phoenix Exultant, when the sun-storm struck. I sent you a message by neutrino laser, urging you to abandon the Array and retreat to safety. You answered back, one last message before the communications failed.'
'No record of this appears in the Mentality.' 'How could it? The solar Sophotechs were down; radio was washed out; and my ship was never part of the Mentality
system.'
'And how have you come to recover this memory now?'
'As Ao Aoen was speaking to me, it all come back. I had
not and I will never give up on my dream. I agreed to erase
my memory, yes, because that was what was necessary. I had
a plan. Now that the plan has gone wrong, I wondered, didn't
I have a backup plan? All engineers provide for margins of error, don't they? What could I have been thinking? Surely I would not have accepted defeat! Well, I did have a backup plan.'
Phaethon smiled, and concluded: 'And when I remembered, it all seemed so obvious, and so inevitable. Come! Here is my offer. Help me regain my ship, I will help you regain your memories. Rhadamanthus can witness our handshake. The Hortators will be thwarted, you will be Helion, and I will fly away in triumph!'
He thrust out his hand.
Helion did not take it. He spoke with a great effort. 'I deeply regret that I cannot accept your offer. If I were to help you on those terms, I would be exiled as well, and this would undermine the authority of the College of Hortators. And that is something I have promised never to do.'
Helion's face showed the pain he was in, but his words marched forth like soldiers made of iron, unflinchingly: 'Even if the College should make a poor decision every now and again, the system still must be maintained. The sanity and humanity of our people must be maintained. My life has always aimed at that cause. No sacrifice is too great for that. Not for your lost dream, not for Daphne's lost love, not for my lost soul, will I break my word. I urge you to accept Ao Aoen's offer. It will be the last offer anyone can make. No one will be allowed to speak to you again, after this.'
'Father, my life also is aimed at the preservation of the human spirit. The stars must be ours for that spirit to live. I regret that I cannot accept Ao Aoen's offer.'
