The Hydrogen Sonata

and she wouldn’t be at all surprised if she looked flushed and even more youthful to these two very well-dressed and immaculately groomed young men. The younger, harder-faced one was saying something. She really ought to concentrate; her attention had drifted there — not like her at all.

“… her being involved in something secret?” he said, eyes narrowed but a small smile — finally! — on his lean face. “Did I understand that right? Did you…?”

“Well, I can’t say too much. Obviously,” Warib said. “Oh, thank you, dear.” She accepted a health drink infusion from Garron. Garron had been a little brusque with the two young men initially — they were both probably even younger than he was — but that was all right. He’d even offered everybody drinks, which was a lot better than his usual What-am-I-just-a-steward-to-you? attitude. “But she’d always been so outstanding, it would only be sensible for the regiment to put her talents to good use. I mean, she would never actually tell me anything, but,” Warib winked at the two young men, “a mother can tell. I think especially when you’re very close — almost embarrassingly close! — in age to your daughter — oh, dear! — I think you can tell when there’s something going on she’s not telling you about. I can’t say any more. I don’t know any more, in the conventional sense of knowing, but, trust me; I know.”

The young, hard-faced one nodded. “That’s very interesting.”

Warib smiled, relaxed. She was much less worried about Vyr now.

xGSV Contents May Differ

oLOU Caconym

oGCU Displacement Activity

oGSV Empiricist

oGSV Just The Washing Instruction Chip In Life’s Rich Tapestry

oUe Mistake Not…

oMSV Passing By And Thought I’d Drop In

oMSV Pressure Drop

oLSV You Call This Clean?

Well, I think we’ve all looked at the relevant signal streams by now. It would seem Mr QiRia really is going to some lengths not to let us know what happened in the way back when. The Mistake Not… has already thrown itself about — again — and is now heading straight back to Xown and the Girdlecity; however, I place this out there just in case there is anybody who knows of anything closer… No? Really? Nothing else within five days? No, then.

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xMSV Pressure Drop

Did our friend the Mistake Not… not leave any sort of presence at Xown?

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xUe Mistake Not…

The Mistake Not… did indeed, because the Mistake Not… is not a complete idiot.

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xMSV Pressure Drop

I certainly didn’t mean to suggest that you were. Would any of these items still on Xown be able to procure these two pieces of soft hardware independently?

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xUe Mistake Not…

Not by themselves. The gentleman in possession of what we assume are Mr QiRia’s eyes, which we assume are genuinely where his memories are, appears to have non-trivial resources to command in the field of surveillance and remote presences. The items I left in the vicinity might be of some assistance in getting hold of the objects in question, and a certain amount of preparatory work might be accomplished, but they would not be sufficient in themselves.

We could, of course, just send a message to Mr Ximenyr asking him to sell, trade or just out of the goodness of his hearts gift us the objects concerned and put them aside until I’m able to get there to pick them up; however, I imagine we might all feel that could serve to alert him — and possibly others — to their mooted importance.

Or we might ask some remaining element of the Fourteenth Regiment — its innocence/on- sidedness presumably taken as read following the attack on its HQ — to help us, but that takes control away from those we entirely and implicitly trust, and might be seen to confer potentially too much power on a Gzilt person, group of people or entity regarding the release or not of the information Mr QiRia’s ocular out-board data storage devices may or may not contain. I think that covers all the available alternatives to my heading back as fast as my little engine fields will carry me to Xown and trusting to my own abilities to retrieve the situation.

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xGCU Displacement Activity

Speaking of Gzilt people potentially having too much power through access to what may be contained in Mr QiRia’s memories; what of Ms Cossont?

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xUe Mistake Not…

Ms Cossont has been no trouble so far, and of some use. Also, having been allowed to look inside the device holding Mr QiRia’s mind-state, with his permission and indeed at his insistence, I’ve discovered that to access his memories is by no means simple; his cooperation may well be required to make sense of the encoded data we’re looking for, certainly if it’s to be done quickly and without fault. As he appears to have, at the least, a sentimental attachment to Ms Cossont, we need to keep both him and her with us. In any event, I wouldn’t imagine that she would either harbour the desire or be in the position to affect matters materially.

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xGCU Displacement Activity

So you’re vouching for her.

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xUe Mistake Not…

Yes. As much as one can for a bio.

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xGSV Contents May Differ

Good. Meanwhile, we are faced with the problem of this disputed preferred Scavenger status between the Ronte and the Liseiden. Just because they’ve been taking their time crawling through space doesn’t mean they have gone away. On the contrary, their most powerful fleet sub-units have each been crawling their way to the same place, Zyse, and are due there in the next day or two. Given what the avatar of the Passing By And Thought I’d Drop In has had to report on what still seems like a delicate political situation, this is not encouraging. Any thoughts?

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oGSV Just The Washing Instruction Chip In Life’s Rich Tapestry

Yes. I think we should be glad those two Delinquents are there, not to mention the Passing By…’s pair of Thugs.

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xGSV Contents May Differ

I was looking for something a little more constructive.

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xMSV Passing By And Thought I’d Drop In

My responsibility. My avatar continues to seek audiences with the various personalities involved, especially Septame Banstegeyn. However, he is proving a hard man to pin down; he can’t be quite as busy with his official responsibilities as he claims, but he certainly appears to have plenty of other interests with which to fill his remaining time. As a result, sadly, for now, I am no more able to suggest anything more constructive than is the Just The Washing Instruction Chip In Life’s Rich Tapestry.