Havaer nodded without comment. He remembered his fake interview with the hierograve. The man had seemed genuine, but that came with the job, so no great surprises there. Sathiel had wanted to use the Oumaru to highlight the benefits of Hegemony protection. But again, that was to be expected. ‘We know he’s not in cahoots with the Harvest mob. Or he wasn’t back then.’
‘He wasn’t back then,’ Laery echoed him. ‘What accommodations they might have reached since, we don’t know. At least nobody has the damn Oumaru now. That was the one thing your pet spacers did right. But it won’t stay lost forever.’ She sighed. ‘If by some miracle we do find the Vulture again, you can goddamn convince them to tell you the location of that wreck. Then we can blow it to pieces and forget it ever existed.’ She met his gaze challengingly. ‘What?’
‘You don’t think, if the Architects are really . . .’
‘The Architects are far away, ruining the day of some other civilization. You think we wouldn’t know by now, if they were actually back? You think they’d scrap one luckless freighter and then go on sick leave for a month? Right now we have problems with the Parthenon and the Hegemony. They’re both using the Oumaru: to get Ints; to convert more worlds. And so, if we never hear of that wreck again, maybe both of those problems might just fade away.’ There was a grim finality in her voice. Hearing it, Havaer wondered what would happen if the Vulture God did reappear. It would be a shame if their galaxy-hopping ways came to an abrupt and secret end. But such thoughts were above his pay grade and it wasn’t as though there was anything he could do. He wasn’t likely to get another chance at making a ‘judgement call’ concerning them, after all.
*
Solace
Trine’s automated splinter units were still working, and had been throughout their breakneck chase through unspace. So it was that, after an hour loitering at the edge of the Berlenhof system, Trine declared they were ready to reveal some preliminary findings.
‘Firstly,’ the Hiver announced, ‘I would like to thank you all, especially my old comrade-in-arms Myrmidon Executor Solace, for giving me this opportunity. It’s not often that I get such a chance to supplement and expand the boundaries of my knowledge.’
‘Trine,’ said that same comrade-in-arms, ‘the point, please. Are they or aren’t they?’
Delegate Trine’s spectral face adopted an expression of arch dissatisfaction. ‘Would you believe that the opportunities for proper showmanship in academia are limited, old companion?’
‘Trine, please.’
‘It’s not as though we get to reveal murderers, or such entertaining frivolities.’
‘Trine!’ Although she couldn’t help a quirk of the lips at that, because the damn Hiver had been mad for old-Earth detective stories from way back.
Trine gave a pained sigh, a sound entirely voluntary and artificial. ‘My friends and co-motionial fellows, I believe these are indeed authentic Originator relics held in some manner of suspensory stasis with which I am unfamiliar. My investigator units will continue a cautious analysis. Although I am obviously unwilling to take any steps that may interfere with their preservation.’
‘But do they have the juice?’ Kris asked. ‘The . . . whatever it is, that makes them do what they do?’
‘An unscientifically phrased query, my new associate, and the answer is “I have not the first idea.” We don’t actually know what it is that changes in Originator regalia, when taken off-planet by any other than Hegemonic hands. And the Essiel, curse them, do not respond when we invite them to symposia. Hence my earlier expressed gratitude – because nobody of my profession has ever been able to study such preserved regalia in transit. What are you going to do with the things, exactly? I need to know whose centres of higher learning I should be making nice to, in order to secure a transfer.’ Another ostentatious sigh. ‘And I had been considering packing it all in and returning to the Assembly, but apparently my work is not done.’
‘And the other thing, the Architect wreckage?’ Solace prompted.
‘Under investigation,’ Trine confirmed. ‘But, let’s face it, old friend, not quite as high priority.’
After that, Solace went to her assigned quarters and wrestled with her loyalties for perhaps seven minutes. She wasn’t sure whether the conclusion she came to was a win or a loss. If Idris hadn’t been lying comatose in one of the suspension pods, perhaps she might have come to another decision. Right now the liking and respect she had for the crew couldn’t outweigh the fact that she was a soldier of the Parthenon. Her sisters were in-system with two massive Partheni warships. She had a duty.