human—Higher, Advancer, or normal—could ever make him feel so inadequate
and defensive as his great-grandmother.
“Indeed it was, and you’re committed now. How good is the sensor
reading?”
“Holding steady. They’re stealthed, of course, but my smartcore can still
detect some distortion. It’s a good ship they’ve got, equal to Chatfield’s.”
“All right. I’d probably have done the same in your circumstances. You
stay with it and see where that representative is going. The ANA judicial
conclave is beginning now. I’m expecting the entire Accelerator Faction to be
shut down within the next hour or two.”
“Excellent.”
“It has its problems, not least the agents and representatives still at
large, like the one you’re following. I suspect we’re going to be a long time
mopping up.”
“At least we’ll have a complete list of them and their activities.”
“Yes, that should help. Let me know when the ship reaches some kind of
destination.”
“Of course.” Digby scowled as the secure call ended. This whole mission
was proving very unsatisfactory. He was leaving too many unanswered questions
behind him as he tagged along after the latest possible lead. He was also
feeling plenty of stress from the destruction he’d caused and then fled from in
Riasi. There would have been a lot of bodyloss due to his actions.
After a quarter of an hour it was clear the faction ship was heading in
toward the Central worlds. It looked like the destination was Oaktier.
There had been only one judicial conclave in ANA’s history. It had been
called to deal with the Separatist Faction, which had wanted to break ANA up,
leaving them in a section free from any regulation or limit imposed by the base
law control that acted as a universal governor across the entire edifice. The
majority verdict was to disallow any such action. An entity with ANA’s ability
and resources and under the authority of a dogmatic ideology might conceivably
pose a threat to the original ANA, not to mention the rest of the Greater
Commonwealth. The duplicitous method by which the Separatist Faction had sought
to seize command of the quasi-physical mechanism that sustained ANA in order to
achieve the segmentation was verification enough that they couldn’t be trusted
to evolve quietly in some distant corner of the galaxy. A whole host of other
agendas to encourage postphysical ascension were exposed at the conclave.
As before, ANA:Governance produced a spherical assembly arena with an
equivalent diameter half that of Earth itself. Such a size was necessary to
accommodate the manifested forms of every individual mind embedded within the
edifice of ANA. They appeared within seconds of the judicial conclave being
announced, materializing across the vast curving shell, clustering with those
of their own factions or in simple groupings of friends or relatives. Ilanthe,
as the nominated representative of the Accelerator Faction, floated at the
center of the sphere. She had chosen to manifest as her primary representation,
a featureless human female with fluid silver skin. Only her face retained any
characteristics, showing a long jawbone and a small elegant nose. Her eyes were
the absorptive black of an event horizon.
“Thank you for responding,” ANA:Governance said to the convened
population.
Ilanthe performed a random sweep over sections of the assembly arena,
noting the various forms and shapes manifested across the shell wall. Over half
retained a human appearance, whereas the rest had selected a multitude of
geometries and colors from minimal spheres of light, to swarms of neuron
echoes, to the simple yet sinister black pyramids of the radical Isolator
Faction. One of the human figures was Nelson Sheldon, who was contemplating her
with the relaxed disdain of a man who had won his game. Of Gore Burnelli there
was no sign, which perturbed her more than it should have. She still didn’t
understand how he’d become the Third
and defensive as his great-grandmother.
“Indeed it was, and you’re committed now. How good is the sensor
reading?”
“Holding steady. They’re stealthed, of course, but my smartcore can still
detect some distortion. It’s a good ship they’ve got, equal to Chatfield’s.”
“All right. I’d probably have done the same in your circumstances. You
stay with it and see where that representative is going. The ANA judicial
conclave is beginning now. I’m expecting the entire Accelerator Faction to be
shut down within the next hour or two.”
“Excellent.”
“It has its problems, not least the agents and representatives still at
large, like the one you’re following. I suspect we’re going to be a long time
mopping up.”
“At least we’ll have a complete list of them and their activities.”
“Yes, that should help. Let me know when the ship reaches some kind of
destination.”
“Of course.” Digby scowled as the secure call ended. This whole mission
was proving very unsatisfactory. He was leaving too many unanswered questions
behind him as he tagged along after the latest possible lead. He was also
feeling plenty of stress from the destruction he’d caused and then fled from in
Riasi. There would have been a lot of bodyloss due to his actions.
After a quarter of an hour it was clear the faction ship was heading in
toward the Central worlds. It looked like the destination was Oaktier.
There had been only one judicial conclave in ANA’s history. It had been
called to deal with the Separatist Faction, which had wanted to break ANA up,
leaving them in a section free from any regulation or limit imposed by the base
law control that acted as a universal governor across the entire edifice. The
majority verdict was to disallow any such action. An entity with ANA’s ability
and resources and under the authority of a dogmatic ideology might conceivably
pose a threat to the original ANA, not to mention the rest of the Greater
Commonwealth. The duplicitous method by which the Separatist Faction had sought
to seize command of the quasi-physical mechanism that sustained ANA in order to
achieve the segmentation was verification enough that they couldn’t be trusted
to evolve quietly in some distant corner of the galaxy. A whole host of other
agendas to encourage postphysical ascension were exposed at the conclave.
As before, ANA:Governance produced a spherical assembly arena with an
equivalent diameter half that of Earth itself. Such a size was necessary to
accommodate the manifested forms of every individual mind embedded within the
edifice of ANA. They appeared within seconds of the judicial conclave being
announced, materializing across the vast curving shell, clustering with those
of their own factions or in simple groupings of friends or relatives. Ilanthe,
as the nominated representative of the Accelerator Faction, floated at the
center of the sphere. She had chosen to manifest as her primary representation,
a featureless human female with fluid silver skin. Only her face retained any
characteristics, showing a long jawbone and a small elegant nose. Her eyes were
the absorptive black of an event horizon.
“Thank you for responding,” ANA:Governance said to the convened
population.
Ilanthe performed a random sweep over sections of the assembly arena,
noting the various forms and shapes manifested across the shell wall. Over half
retained a human appearance, whereas the rest had selected a multitude of
geometries and colors from minimal spheres of light, to swarms of neuron
echoes, to the simple yet sinister black pyramids of the radical Isolator
Faction. One of the human figures was Nelson Sheldon, who was contemplating her
with the relaxed disdain of a man who had won his game. Of Gore Burnelli there
was no sign, which perturbed her more than it should have. She still didn’t
understand how he’d become the Third
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