‘Yes,’ Chess replied. He was not exactly excited by the war games. Actually, he was not excited at all. ‘The two of you should plug the chips into your ketcoms. Make sure there are no issues. I’ll go get them.’ He was on his feet and heading for the offices before Mitsuko could say anything.
‘This isn’t really his kind of thing,’ Melissa said, waving a hand at the screen where footage of various MagiTag games was now showing. ‘To be honest, I’m more interested in the aerobatics in two weeks.’
‘I’m not really all that interested either,’ Nava said.
‘I’d have thought you’d be really into it,’ Kyle said. ‘I know you didn’t want to take part, but…’
‘MagiTag is a means to an end. It’s the best way we have of simulating realistic battle scenarios. But it’s still a game. Especially when it’s this kind of tournament. Games don’t teach you anything other than how to play games. Thinking otherwise will get you killed.’
‘That’s not gloomy at all,’ Mitsuko said.
Nava shrugged. ‘Not really. Wait until you’ve been shot, then you’ll know what “gloomy” feels like.’
235/8/13.
The opening ceremony of the symposium reminded Nava, to some extent, of the matriculation ceremony at her school. The school’s principal was even there to give a speech. It was boring. If the rest of the symposium was like this, Nava felt it likely that she would be catching up on her sleep. It was a shame that she had not lost any sleep recently, but maybe she could bank some while pretending to listen to some of the panels.
‘I’m not exactly sure that this convention was designed with us in mind,’ Melissa whispered. ‘I mean, there’s next to nothing I’d normally pay any attention to in any of the panels. If we weren’t part of one, I wouldn’t have come.’
‘I was thinking something similar,’ Nava replied. She turned to her right, where Mitsuko was sitting. ‘Can’t we just go sunbathe and come in tomorrow?’
‘Courtney wants to see the policing panel this afternoon,’ Mitsuko replied. ‘And we get a free lunch.’
‘It had better be good.’
~~~
They ended up in a café in the Clan Assembly building for lunch.
What people thought of as the Clan Assembly building was more of a complex. The convention centre was one of several buildings backing up the one where the representatives of the clans actually met, and it was a short walk to get from one to the other. You could walk between any building in the complex through either tunnels or covered walkways. Nava took note of the riot shutters installed at various points along the tunnel they used; you could isolate any given building from the others, though you could always go outside to bypass those shutters. Thinking about it, all the external doors were shielded too. Whether that was good or bad probably depended upon whether you were stuck in a building with or without rioters.
‘They weren’t trying with that lunch,’ Mitsuko said once they were sitting down with a view of the ocean.
‘I think the school does better,’ Melissa agreed.
‘And another nail goes into the coffin,’ Nava said. ‘We could’ve been sunbathing. There’s a shielded deck beside the helipad, right?’
‘There is,’ Mitsuko replied. ‘I don’t think it gets much use, but it’s there. When’s that panel you wanted to see, Courtney?’
‘Fourteen hundred,’ Courtney replied. ‘Theatre nine.’
‘And our panel is the same time tomorrow. Maybe we should just take the mornings off.’
Courtney shrugged. ‘I figure we’re here, so we may as well look like responsible adults.’
‘I am legally not an adult,’ Nava said. ‘I reserve the right to not behave like one.’
‘She makes a valid point,’ Kyle said. ‘Ah, to be young again.’
‘You’re only five years older than me.’
‘Ah, but it’s not the years, it’s the mileage.’
‘Really?’ Nava said. ‘A hundred and forty-six light years.’
Kyle shook his head. ‘Got me beat. Beherbergen is a hundred and thirty-eight from here.’
Melissa let out a little squeak. ‘Avorna’s only sixty-four.’
‘Seventy-three to Leigh’s Landing,’ Rochester said. ‘There are not many systems in the Alliance that are over a hundred light years from Shinden.’
‘Ah,’ Mitsuko said, ‘but one of the few things we know about Nava is that she did not grow up on a world with our culture.’
Kyle shrugged. ‘Parts of Beherbergen aren’t part of clan culture, but the world is in the Alliance. One or two of the Clan Worlds aren’t entirely clan worlds. Especially out on the fringes. You okay, Courtney?’
Courtney wrenched her eyes away from Nava and shook her head. ‘Yes. I’m fine. Just… lost in my thoughts. Uh, Garavain is only twenty-four light years away. Really, Suki’s the least-travelled person at the table.’
Mitsuko frowned. ‘You’re right. I’ve been to orbit a couple of times. Never out of the system.’
‘A real homebody,’ Kyle said.
‘That’s the Sonkei clan for you. We stick to our system like glue. Right up until the time we don’t.’
‘That describes more or less everyone in the Clan Worlds,’ Courtney said. ‘I read somewhere that eighty percent of Clan Worlds citizens never leave their own planet.’
‘I think that might be a bit low for Avorna,’ Melissa said. ‘We don’t get out much.’
‘Same for Leigh’s Landing,’ Rochester said, nodding.
‘I couldn’t wait to leave,’ Nava said quietly, as though to herself.
Courtney heard it anyway. ‘I’d imagine so,’ she said. Then she went on quickly. ‘I mean, you were rescued or something, right? Wherever it was, it can’t have been good.’
‘No. “Good” doesn’t describe it. “Good” doesn’t even come close.’
~~~
Courtney sat in one of the theatres in the convention centre, only half her attention on the panel she had wanted to see. They were discussing the role of sorcery in the ASF’s police work and it had slid into an argument over whether spells which affected the mind should be allowed
