table, able to feel, through her feet, the distant vibration of the powerful turbines as the barge carried them onwards.
Semi-transparent glow-globes floated just beneath the ceiling, filling the room with a warm and pearly light. Tiny insect-like shapes occasionally flitted through the air – autonomous
recording devices, nominally under Thijs’s control, but secretly slaved, she knew, to Karl’s command. Tonight, he would make sure they recorded nothing.
Gabrielle nodded to Thijs in acknowledgement. ‘Hear, hear,’ said someone further down the table, their voice slurring.
Thijs sat down again. This banquet for the Demarchy’s leading bureaucrats and politicians had been going on for nearly three hours now, yet the after-dinner speeches had still not come to
an end.
The first bout of speechmaking had come from a number of minor adjutants, each of them in turn summarizing the various technological benefits that the Demarchy of Uchida had acquired thanks to
previous Ascensions. After them had come the lower-level bureaucrats, detailing the Demarchy’s continued happy relations with the Accord, while their equivalents from the security department
had reported further on the Demarchy’s continued successes against both the River Concord States and the pockets of Freehold resistance still scattered amongst the higher peaks of the Montos
de Frenezo range. After these had come the senior researchers from Dios, with a summary of the financial and military aid received from the Accord, and finally the senior security and bureaucracy,
whose speeches consisted mostly of congratulations to everyone else for their part in keeping the Demarchy safe from its neighbours and its enemies for another twenty-one years.
At last, just when it seemed that these interminable eulogies might go on for the rest of eternity, the remains of the dinner were cleared away by waiting staff, and the ceremonial wine was
finally brought in. Gabrielle watched with sick fascination as the glasses around her were refreshed. She reached carefully into the folds of her gown, letting her fingers touch the device that
would activate the neurotoxin, as if to remind herself she had not imagined last night’s conversation.
When a glass of the poisoned wine was set before her, she stroked its stem with her thumb and forefinger, and forced herself to control her breathing.
I will not panic
. She reminded
herself that Karl was just metres away, at the far end of a corridor leading to the banqueting hall. He was accompanied by twenty Demarchy troopers, whom he insisted were absolutely loyal to
him.
Just another few minutes, and they would finally be free.
Thijs stood again, waiting for the conversation to die down.
‘Tomorrow,’ he said, ‘Mer Gabrielle will be granted the privilege of communing directly with the Ship of the Covenant, as so many of her predecessors have done for nearly two
centuries now. In return for this act of selflessness, the Demarchy and its benefactors in the Accord will benefit from a priceless cornucopia of scientific and technological wisdom.’
He looked around at the attentive faces. ‘But this sacrifice is also a blessing for her,’ he continued. ‘After passing on to us this sacred information, Mer Gabrielle will, as
all before her have been witnessed to do, ascend bodily into the highest realms of the informational matrix, there to reside next to God the Master Programmer. She will thereby be invested with a
glory that even the most devout amongst us could never hope to attain. For this, Mer Gabrielle,’ he declared, turning to face her, ‘we here all salute you.’
Someone started clapping, and it spread. She watched entranced as the assembled leaders of the Demarchy, every last one of them, raised their glasses to their lips and swallowed the tainted
wine.
She lifted her own glass, barely pressing the rim to her lips before placing it back down with the wine untouched. How many of those here knew
Semi-transparent glow-globes floated just beneath the ceiling, filling the room with a warm and pearly light. Tiny insect-like shapes occasionally flitted through the air – autonomous
recording devices, nominally under Thijs’s control, but secretly slaved, she knew, to Karl’s command. Tonight, he would make sure they recorded nothing.
Gabrielle nodded to Thijs in acknowledgement. ‘Hear, hear,’ said someone further down the table, their voice slurring.
Thijs sat down again. This banquet for the Demarchy’s leading bureaucrats and politicians had been going on for nearly three hours now, yet the after-dinner speeches had still not come to
an end.
The first bout of speechmaking had come from a number of minor adjutants, each of them in turn summarizing the various technological benefits that the Demarchy of Uchida had acquired thanks to
previous Ascensions. After them had come the lower-level bureaucrats, detailing the Demarchy’s continued happy relations with the Accord, while their equivalents from the security department
had reported further on the Demarchy’s continued successes against both the River Concord States and the pockets of Freehold resistance still scattered amongst the higher peaks of the Montos
de Frenezo range. After these had come the senior researchers from Dios, with a summary of the financial and military aid received from the Accord, and finally the senior security and bureaucracy,
whose speeches consisted mostly of congratulations to everyone else for their part in keeping the Demarchy safe from its neighbours and its enemies for another twenty-one years.
At last, just when it seemed that these interminable eulogies might go on for the rest of eternity, the remains of the dinner were cleared away by waiting staff, and the ceremonial wine was
finally brought in. Gabrielle watched with sick fascination as the glasses around her were refreshed. She reached carefully into the folds of her gown, letting her fingers touch the device that
would activate the neurotoxin, as if to remind herself she had not imagined last night’s conversation.
When a glass of the poisoned wine was set before her, she stroked its stem with her thumb and forefinger, and forced herself to control her breathing.
I will not panic
. She reminded
herself that Karl was just metres away, at the far end of a corridor leading to the banqueting hall. He was accompanied by twenty Demarchy troopers, whom he insisted were absolutely loyal to
him.
Just another few minutes, and they would finally be free.
Thijs stood again, waiting for the conversation to die down.
‘Tomorrow,’ he said, ‘Mer Gabrielle will be granted the privilege of communing directly with the Ship of the Covenant, as so many of her predecessors have done for nearly two
centuries now. In return for this act of selflessness, the Demarchy and its benefactors in the Accord will benefit from a priceless cornucopia of scientific and technological wisdom.’
He looked around at the attentive faces. ‘But this sacrifice is also a blessing for her,’ he continued. ‘After passing on to us this sacred information, Mer Gabrielle will, as
all before her have been witnessed to do, ascend bodily into the highest realms of the informational matrix, there to reside next to God the Master Programmer. She will thereby be invested with a
glory that even the most devout amongst us could never hope to attain. For this, Mer Gabrielle,’ he declared, turning to face her, ‘we here all salute you.’
Someone started clapping, and it spread. She watched entranced as the assembled leaders of the Demarchy, every last one of them, raised their glasses to their lips and swallowed the tainted
wine.
She lifted her own glass, barely pressing the rim to her lips before placing it back down with the wine untouched. How many of those here knew
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