Graysal was certainly surprised when he realized that it was me, the commander of SSOps, messaging him. “Hold the fort until Thoughtful 45 contacts us,” I tell him. “Let’s get the Combine’s reaction on this. As for that girl, Anger…”
“Anger?”
“The terrorist. I never did get her name.”
“Phara Maddock. It was easy enough to find out. She certainly wasn’t a professional.”
“Cillian plans to deal with her personally.”
“Admiral Whelan?” Now Graysal sounded not only surprised, but nervous. I can’t blame him. Cillian isn’t always the easiest emanation to deal with.
“That’s right. So you and I have to get things under control before he gets here.”
“Things seem to have quieted down in the encampment. Once the SongLuminants stopped possessing the people, they were filled with remorse. That’s fortunate, since out of some nine hundred colonists, less than sixty proved immune to the SongLuminant influence, mainly the K’ntasari and the ones from Sideria.”
“You don’t black out when the SongLuminants are using your body. I’m not sure whether that’s a good thing, or a bad one, but for our purposes, it means we’ve got hundreds of witnesses. Also – those Volparnian men who attacked Ashvattha – list them as dead in the riots. Let the attackers go unidentified. It wasn’t their fault, and I don’t want this reflecting badly on their families. Tensions are high enough as it is.”
Graysal sounds exhausted. “You know, it went the opposite way from how Lord Danak thought. The teleport is a racial purity test – but the pure ones are the ones with the sap of the nau’gsh. They’re the ones who can’t be possessed.”
“Well, after this gets out, I doubt the Champions of the Skylight Spin will try anything again – short of an out-and-out war. I don’t think anyone will want that.”
“It doesn’t matter. After this, paranoia is going to run rampant – and not just here. The only ones who can be fully trusted are the ones guaranteed free of alien influence. Speaking as a security man, and one who has witnessed massive breeches lately, it has to be something we include when determining security clearance levels. It has to be.”
It also means that Terrans will be trusted even less than they already are. Maybe Rivers is right in wanting to go home.
And the end result of this mess? Humanity raised up a peg, the SongLuminants lowered. New allies made in the Hreck, the Denolin Turym and the Eer-gaaani. The primacy of the Domha’vei over CenGov and the IndWorlds as the leaders of humanity is established. Tara’s power in the Combine inaugurated, her power in the Domha’vei consolidated by positioning her as leader of a new aristocracy of human-Cu’endhari hybrids. The colony is founded, and it will be the stepping stone of our empire. In short, this couldn’t have turned out better if I and I had planned it.
“Maybe it’s best not to think about that too deeply,” I say to Canopus, playfully ruffling its leaves.