“Cascading reaction, every other coil fails in series as the fail-safe cutoffs are overloaded, failures reach the chambers. One goes up and we…”
“Are all dust,” Thuk finished for him. “Could the humans have done it?”
“When were they close enough? Before they came over to help with the restoration, that is. Besides, that would require an incredibly in-depth knowledge of our systems.”
“Of course not.” Now, he was furious. They hadn’t almost died, they’d been meant to die, and only the thinnest reed of happenstance had prevented and allowed him to discover the truth. His worst, most outrageous suspicions about their assignment here and the reasons for their nonsensical songs from the Chorus were not the product of paranoia after all. Or rather, they were the result of entirely justifiable paranoia.
“This is why you bypassed the rest of your group to come to me. You suspect one of them conspired. Who?”
“I suspect no one, Derstu,” Lynz said quickly. “That would be wholly inappropriate and unjust. But, neither can I eliminate anyone from suspicion.”
“A diplomat’s answer, Attendant Lynz.” Thuk came to a decision in an instant. He probably didn’t have the authority, but at the moment, he didn’t give a gim’s cloaca. “You are now in charge of all aspects of the damage restoration. You will sing directly to me on your progress and any other ‘discoveries.’”
Lynz leaned back and held out his arms at a downward angle, signaling submission. “Derstu, I didn’t bring you here to usurp my highers.”
“I know you didn’t. Which is why you’re perfect for the assignment. Daily songs, Lynz. And if anyone questions you or stands in your way, send them straight to me, do you understand?”
“Yes, Derstu,” the attendant said in a tone that conveyed both resignation and no small amount of dread.
“Can you fix the coil?”
“Now that I know it’s broken, easily.”
“Good. Do so. But right now, let’s return to the lockout. I’m getting cold.” As they marched, Thuk connected his mask’s link with the mind cavern. “Kivits? Are you there?”
“I’m here, Thuk.” Oh good, they were back to names again instead of titles. “How may I serve?”
“We need to hold a duet immediately. Actually, bring Hurg, too. We have a big problem.”
TWENTY-ONE
“I’m not ready,” Elsa said as the pod sped along toward the Ageless auditorium at the heart of Methuselah’s entertainment district. Usually, it was the venue of choice for off-world bands and comedians making a stop on Lazarus along a multi-planet tour. Tonight, however, it would play host to thousands of Ageless shareholders, employees, contractors, Methuselah citizens, and interplanetary media for the company’s third-quarter stakeholder’s meeting.
“You’ve already presented to the board,” Tyson chided. “Was that so bad?”
“That was six holograms, not six thousand live bodies. I live in labs, Tyson. I don’t know if I’ve been in a room with that many people in my life. Much less with all of them looking at me.”
“With the stage lights, you won’t be able to see past the second or third row anyway.”
“That doesn’t help.”
“Really? Always helped me in the beginning.”
“Back when you still worried about what people thought about you?”
“Well, yeah.” Tyson rubbed his chin. “I guess that was quite a while ago.”
“Ugh. I swear if you weren’t funding my research, I’d slap the arrogant off your face.”
“It would need to be a very hard slap. Any word on our … other project?”
“You mean trapping Beckham?” Tyson nodded. Elsa’s face brightened conspiratorially. “I sent out feelers through some of my former classmates from grad school like you suggested and got a callback, complete with a new electronic routing address to Ceres, of all places.”
“I thought he was on Mars?”
“I suspect he has a ghost account and maybe even a love nest set up on Ceres. He’s going around a lot of backs to keep himself entertained, including his husband’s.”
“Our playboy professor is married?”
“His only visible means of support since losing tenure. Get a divorce and people will start asking questions about how he can afford his bubbler lifestyle, I imagine. Anyway, my old friend was an early conquest of his among our class, but she broke it off quick once she saw through his games. He’s been intermittently dogging her ever since.”
“She must have been memorable.”
“She’s a goddess. I’m straight and I’d have a hard time turning down a chance to fuck her.” Elsa stopped, realizing what she’d said. Her cheeks flushed red, and she cleared her throat. “Anyway, she was only too happy to forward me the link address he uses to harass her, and I put it to good use.”
“He replied to your offer?”
Elsa shook her head. “Not yet, but with the coms delay, the very soonest I could’ve heard from him was the day before yesterday. And that’s assuming he has realtime access to it from wherever he is right now. If it’s a local net dropbox account, he may not see it until he’s back on Ceres. So I’m not really sweating it yet. Might not for a few weeks, really.”
Tyson grimaced at the potential delay, but he knew she was right. There was no way to rush some things. In many ways, mankind had pushed out into the stars only to become reacquainted with old problems. Communication delays measured in weeks, bottlenecks, it was like they’d been uprooted from the Information Age and dropped right back into the age of sail.
“Hey,” Elsa snapped her fingers. “Still with me?”
“Yes, sorry.”
“Where did you go, just now?”
“Nowhere, it’s just…” Tyson tugged at a lapel. “I’ve gotten some bad news recently, and I really need a win. Figuring out who’s behind the Teegarden attack would go a long way toward mitigating the damage coming down the pipe.”
“You mean there’s more than just the pandemic and the Xre incursion?”
“Oh yeah, a lot more.”
“Like what?”
“You can’t know, because technically, I can’t know for another few hours.”
“And you’re not going to talk about it at the stakeholder presentation?”
Tyson snorted. “Absolutely not. I may as well shoot myself onstage.”
“So you’re going to lie to us?”
“Us?”
Elsa crossed her arms over
