Bishop Dane of the Community of the Revealed—more familiarly known as the Revenant ambassador to Scandya—offered the blessing for the public ceremony opening the new Tabernacle, a replica of the main Tabernacle in Wystuh on Orum…
The holo screen displayed a gleaming white octagonal structure, with another building in the background—one with eight glistening white stone towers soaring into a grayish blue sky under a brilliant sun. A caption appeared at the bottom—“Tabernacle and Temple—Wystuh, Orum.” Then the image switched to a single structure, a smaller replica of the main Revenant Tabernacle.
Although the Gotland Tabernacle was constructed adjacent to the Revenant embassy, “our services and our way are open to all,” according to the ambassador. He went on to say that the Tabernacle represented the vision of the prophet, and that all good people needed to look beyond the morality of convenience to live by the commandments of God and not the convenience of man…
Van wondered about how open the Samarrans felt the Revenant way might be.
Construction on the Tabernacle began last year, after Premier Gustofsen signed the bilateral technical trade agreement with the Revenant systems. Gustofsen had undertaken a long campaign to win over both the isolationist partisans within his own Conservative Democratic party, as well as the leftist greens of the Liberal Commons…Negotiations after the agreement led to the establishment of Trans-Scandyan Microtronics. The terms of the agreement were virtually identical to those of the earlier agreement with the Argenti Commonocracy that established SNI [Scandyan Nanitic Industries], which turned its first significant profit last year…
An ironic smile crossed Van’s lips. Both the Revs and the Argentis were doing missionary work. The Revenants were more obvious, but most people, he’d discovered, found solid creds a better basis for faith than promises in the hereafter. Then…were those just the people he knew?
He frowned, recalling that his background briefing materials had mentioned riots and great unrest before Gustofsen had become premier. The article seemed to imply that those divisions still existed, and that Gustofsen remained adept at bridging them.
He switched to the in-net briefings sent to him from RSF HQ in New Oisin.
RSF commissions RSFS Mangan…third in the new Addams class…
After repeated RSF requests, Keltyr authorities remove “scientific” expedition from nebula watch post near Corotake…
RSF officers return from exchange duties with Revealed Community units…operational duties mutually beneficial…
Third fleet discovers abandoned installation near Sulyn…
The last item had personal interest for Van, and he focused on it.
…the installation, concealed within a nickel-iron asteroid with an extremely eccentric orbit, had been recently abandoned…contained ion traces consistent with military propulsion systems and weapons…RSF experts are investigating…
Van frowned. Every asteroid capable of holding an installation of the size reported in the dispatch had long since been tracked, since Sulyn’s iron deposits were generally deep and hard to mine. At least, he thought such asteroids had been well tracked.
He shut down the holo display and stood. He’d have to hurry not to be late for his meeting with the Argenti attaché. Fortunately, the Argenti embassy was only three klicks farther northward on Knutt Boulevard and half a klick to the west. Had it been less than two klicks, Van would have considered walking it, but he had a tendency to walk quickly and sweat heavily, and arriving soaked wouldn’t have helped his personal presentation.
Again, Stefan was the one who drove him.
As the groundcar hummed northward, on near-empty streets, Van reviewed what he knew. Cruachan had left several reports on Colonel Marti, and those reports suggested a cool and calculating senior Argenti officer—one who revealed little, yet subtly pressed for every advantage and bit of information that he could extract.
Van had gone over all the material in the datacube from Commodore Petrov, and had been more than a little surprised to find that it had included the annual budget requests from the SDF to the Scandyan parliament, along with a narrative summary of the status of all the Scandyan armed forces, including the space forces, and the general budgetary and procurement plans for the next five years—all very modest.
Those figures Van had turned over to Cordelia Gregory, with a request for her to analyze them to see how accurate and possible they were.
“Ser, we’re almost there,” Stefan announced.
Van looked up. The footprint of the Argenti embassy complex was scarcely larger than that of the Taran embassy, but the building was three stories in height—a silvery metallic structure, rising on the north side of a courtyard that enclosed a garden of some sort. The building was taller and more angular than those they had passed so far.
Stefan guided the groundcar toward a gated entryway. The guard in the black-trimmed silvers of the Argenti forces recognized the Taran codes and waved Stefan onward as the gate swung open. Van still had to present his datacard at the main entry. He was not issued wand or guard, but merely told that Colonel Marti’s office was on the second level in the north wing.
The embassy was not unguarded. As he walked the corridors that held but a mere handful of people, every ten meters, or less, Van could sense another pulse of energy from the security systems, and, with the aid of his implant, identified at least a dozen concealed autoweapons emplacements set high in the blue marble walls of the main corridors. While the Taran embassy also had such emplacements, they were far fewer and contained far less power.
Van found the office without difficulty. Colonel José Marie Marti—that was the holo banner outside the archway.
Inside, a young woman smiled warmly. “Commander Albert? Colonel Marti is expecting you. The open door.” Her Anglo was but slightly accented, and her friendliness obvious.
“Thank you,” Van replied in Hispyn.
Marti was brown-eyed, black-haired, olive-skinned, and a centimeter or two taller than Van. He was standing. Both his eyes and smile were warm as he half bowed. “Commander
