Broken Circle by John Shirley Page A

resources.”
    â€œThat was long ago.”
    â€œSilence! Enough of this—make your choice!”
    Mken took a long, deep breath. Then he bowed to the inevitable—as he bowed to Excellent Redolence. “I will lead the expedition suffused with an eagerness to serve you, Great Hierarch.”
    â€œGood. Go and prepare for departure as quickly as you can. Breathe not a word of this to anyone. Then report to launch bay thirty-three. Your staff has already been chosen for you. Including the Elites . . . my Sangheili . . . I am sending along with you . . .”
    â€œRespectfully, Excellent Redolence, I will need to make a plan. Survey the state of the homeworld, choose the precise—”
    â€œOnce more you drag your heels! The survey is based on sound surveillance intelligence. The plan was made through specific modeling. It has all been completed. You are free, however, to refine it as you go. Now, leave my sight and prepare for departure.”
    Mken made a gesture of obeisance and turned away. Drifting his chair past R’Noh, he heard Excellent remark with a sneer,“R’Noh, refresh my memory. Didn’t this very ‘Prophet of Inner Conviction’ once denounce you as a capricious fool when you suggested a mission to obtain females from the Stoics?”
    â€œWhy, yes, yes he did, Great Hierarch!”
    â€œIs it not an exquisite irony that now he must lead such a mission himself?”
    â€œOh, I agree,” chuckled R’Noh, as Mken directed his chair through the doorway. “I find that quite exquisite!”
    â€œMken,” said the Hierarch from behind him. “Remember that no one is to know about this mission . . . except those who must accompany you.”
    Mken paused, half turned. “Very well, Great Hierarch. But—when we return? Surely, then we must . . .”
    â€œYes, yes, once it is complete and you have returned, success in hand—then we will announce it. Success will protect the mission from expected criticism. Now, you go and see that it is a success!”
    Mken gestured Joyful obedience. He went slowly from the room, to preserve as much dignity as remained to him . . . precious little.
    After leaving the hall, he paused in an observation bubble, directing his chair to a window that looked out on the smeared purple of a nebula. To go out there and return to Janjur Qom . . . He’d dreamed of going there all his life. But under these circumstances . . . no.
    The Stoics were not without their own military resources. What were the chances he would return alive from such a mission?
    It seemed to him the chances were feeble.
    And the likelihood was that he would die there, away from his beloved mate, never seeing his child. This was utter madness.

CHAPTER 5
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    High Charity
    850 BCE
    The Age of Reconciliation
    O n the blood of my father, on the blood of my sons, with each beat of each heart within my breast I swear to uphold the Covenant.”
    Under the direction of the San’Shyuum known as R’Noh, a Sangheili ranger known as Vil ‘Kthamee recited the oath with the other Sangheili, before setting foot on the corvette Vengeful Vitality , the vessel that would take them to Janjur Qom under the command of the Prophet of Inner Conviction. Vil always found the oath thrilling, but later, if he thought about it too much, he felt uncomfortable; he tasted a bitterness. The Covenant was relatively new, the Writ of Union was crafted not so long ago. And within memory the Sangheili had fought the San’Shyuum. How many of his bloodline, his egg brothers, had died under the blistering, murderous blasts of the Dreadnought?
    And yet he served these same San’Shyuum.
    Surrender? It was not surrender—the dishonor of such athing the Sangheili could not imagine; no, it was alliance—and it was the saving of Sanghelios.
    Still, here was that bitter