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  "We evaluate not only the user but the situation," Paris said. "So... no."

  "Which is what you would say," Kinyon said.

  "We've looked at AIs rather closely at this point," Tyler said. "Paris is correct. Terran AIs are loyal to Terra, Glatun AIs cannot be used if the loyalty is under duress. They'll have mostly terminated before capture."

  "You're sure of that?" Kinyon asked.

  "As I said," Tyler said. "We've looked at AIs rather closely at this point. It wasn't like we don't understand coding. When we first started dealing with Glatun code it was tough. But... We've been working on it for quite some time now. What would it take to upgrade you guys?" Tyler asked. "I mean, without starting from scratch."

  "Some proprietary coding," Paris said. "And a member of the Council of Benefactors with legal authority."

  "Probably not going to get that, then," Tyler said. "Dammit."

  —|—

  "...Zhippigui this... Ghivor... down... Rema... syst..."

  "Cul dammit," Admiral Nibuc muttered. "Roger, Ghivor... Go with Cul."

  "Two remaining ships," the Benefactor said. "Admiral... I know this sounds trite, but I have never been more proud of my species."

  "I remain unsure of the value of this mission, Benefactor," Admiral Nibuc said, watching the tactical display. The Ghivor had come about and was now on a collision course with the closest Aggressor. "And I am getting very tired of running away. But I and my Glatun follow our orders."

  The Ghivor never made it to the Rangora battleship. It was hammered apart under the combined fire of six of the massive battleships.

  "No matter the cost," Nibuc said.

  "It is worth it, Admiral," the Benefactor said. "I will prove it. On my honor."

  "The honor of a Benefactor," the admiral practically spat.

  "Gate open, Admiral."

  "Then take us out," Nibuc said. "One more system. Cul willing, it's not heavily held. And we're assuming the Terrans are still holding out."

  "They remain," Gorku said. "They remain."

  —|—

  "Unscheduled gate activation! Set Condition One!"

  "Ah crap!" Chief Barnett said, practically tossing her beer onto the counter. "Sorry, honey, we gotta go. Bye, BF."

  "There's something seriously wrong with the world when my girlfriend goes running to the alarms and I'm stuck with the tab."

  "I've got the tab," Erickson said. "I'd go running for my space suit but I'm a little too old and fat."

  "See ya round, fatso," Dana said, giving him a peck on the cheek. He'd lost his civilian friend but she was pretty sure he'd find another. Preferably one with some brains.

  "Beat you to the side of the pool," Rammer said, diving off his barstool.

  "In a million years," Dana said, standing up on her own to do a swimmer's dive.

  "Cancel Condition One!" Paris announced. "Stand Down. Stand Down. Friendly incoming. All military personnel report to units. Set Condition One! Rangora Emergence! Cancel Condition One, Rangora Eliminated."

  "What the hell is going on?" Bill said. "I mean the lights didn't even dim!"

  —|—

  "Gorku?" Tyler said, his eyes wide. "Holy hell, buddy! Welcome to Earth."

  "Tyler," the Glatun said, his fur rippling. "You remain."

  "Your ship looks like it could use some TLC," Tyler said. The Glatun dreadnought was bigger than a Rangora Aggressor. But it could fit in the Troy. The Aggressor that had been chasing it could fit in a shoebox. "We've got most of a space dock in Troy. I'll call the admiral and get him to prioritize you."

  "There is apparently some question about our provenances," Gorku said. "That is, they think we are a way for the Rangora to slip inside your defenses."

  "You don't mean they think you're a..." Tyler stopped and started to giggle.

  "Tyler," Gorku said. "I recognize the sound of human laughter and its meaning. We have severe damage from fighting our way through the Eridani system, many casualties, and we started out with a fleet of nine ships. I am sorry that I fail to see the humor."

  "Sorry, sorry..." Tyler said, still trying not to giggle. "Sorry. It's just that the term for what you're describing is..."

  —|—

  "We can't be sure it's not a—" Captain Sharp said then stopped. "It's not a ruse."

  "Oh, use the term," Admiral Kinyon snapped. He wasn't about to ask why the captain's hair was wet, the smell of chorine told him all he had to know. "We can't be sure it's not a Trojan Horse."

  "Admiral," Paris said. "I have thoroughly analyzed the information from Zhippigui, the command ship AI. You will recall our discussion of subordination of Glatun AIs. Suffice it to say that Zhippigui meets all the protocols of an unsubordinate AI, that it has sufficient information to analyze its protocols and processes and for me to say that Benefactor Niazgol Gorku meets the standards of being a legal Benefactor, not subordinated to the Glatun."

  "Which throws all the AIs in the system into question," Admiral Kinyon said. "We'll bring aboard their wounded. But the Zhippaccaggooey is going to have to stay out. We'll send out parts and supplies to help them with their repairs until I've assessed the information myself."

  "Understood, sir," Paris said.

  "Captain DiNote," Kinyon said. "Please send a shuttle over to the..."

  "Zhippigui," Paris said.

  "The Zippadoodey and pick up the task force commander and the Benefactor," the admiral said. "Be all smiley."

  "Yes, sir," DiNote said. "Go myself or—"

  "Go yourself but don't drive," Kinyon said. "Colonel Helberg, prepare a formal greeting party. DiNote, send over as many shuttles as they need to offload their wounded. Get with Apollo to start surveying the damage. Tell the ship CO that as soon as he's able, he probably wants to get as far away from the gate as possible. Have him set up in orbit around Mars, on the back side as much as possible..." The admiral paused in thought. "Anything else?"

  "Call the President and tell her that she's about to have visitors?" Captain Sharp said.

  "Good point."

  —|—

  "Benefactor Gorku," Admiral Kinyon said. "Welcome to Troy."

  "Admiral," Gorku said, clapping his hands together. "I appreciate you stopping the Rangora chasing us."

  "Well, we couldn't exactly have them hanging about the system, could we?" Kinyon said. "And if I might introduce my staff?"

  "Please," Gorku said.

  —|—

  "...and, of course, Mr. Tyler Vernon..."

  "Who is not part of his staff," Tyler said, clapping his hands together in the Glatun form of greeting. "Welcome, again, to Terra, Gorku, Admiral Nibuc. I am sorry to hear of your many losses, Admiral."

  "They died as Glatun should," the admiral said. "Face to the enemy to the last. Even if we spent most of the time running."

  "We need to speak on that," Admiral Kinyon said. "If you gentlem— gentle Glatun are not too fatigued, we should repair to my quarters."

  "Not tired at all, Admiral," Tyler said.

  "And Mr. Vernon, of course," Kinyon said, trying to smile.

  —|—

  "When Tuxughah fell it was clear that we could not stop them," Admiral Nibuc said, sipping at the maple sap. "Among other things, Benefactor Intelligence had underestimated their fleet by about two thirds. They had sixty-three assault vectors!"

  "Ow," Tyler said. "We had it as, what, twenty?"

  "Yes," Admiral Kinyon said.

  "They were everywhere at once," Nibuc said. "At one point my staff estimated they had entered the war with over two hundred Aggressors, six hundred Cofubof... Their known fleet was huge. This one built in secret dwarfed it. And... we were out-admiraled. We made mistakes. Units were unwilling to fight to the last. The Rangora were mentally and spiritually prepared for this war. They were trained for it and willing to soak up whatever casualties necessary to achieve their objectives. We were not. Not our fleet, not our people, assuredly not our leadership."

  "Of which I was not, at the ti
me, a member," Gorku said. "But feel free to blame it on me."

  "I was ordered by High Command to detach my task force, pick up Benefactors and move them ahead of the Rangora assault," Nibuc said, ignoring the Benefactor. "The only one I could rendezvous with was Benefactor Gorku."

  "Because I had some very fast ships and used them," Gorku said. "The Rangora, once they got past Zo'Zowoxash, were moving everywhere at once. They were, most of the time, ahead of us."

  "Which is why we only have this one remaining ship," Nibuc said. "Eight of my task force gave their all, Admiral."

  "On what you clearly think was a fool's mission," Tyler said.

  "There is no way you can hold this system," Nibuc said, ruffling his back fur. "In time you too will fall."

  "We will see," Kinyon said calmly.

  "There were reports that some of the systems were holding out," Gorku said. "The Rangora were cutting communication links so fast, though, it is impossible to tell what was real and what was disinformation. But if you can hold out as well as those systems... It is possible that we can bleed the Rangora. Which is why we brought you these gifts."

  "Cyberneticists, higher level AI code, releases, new designs, an intelligence dump..." Admiral Kinyon said. "Everything we could possibly use. Which, sorry, is a little too pat."

  "I was the one who made all the political arrangements for the material and technologies you already received, Admiral," Gorku said. "All of which appear to work just fine. Otherwise you'd have never held this system."

  "For which I thank you," the admiral said. "But still, under the circumstances, you can understand that we're going to be very cautious with what you brought through. In the meantime, there are many logistic issues to arrange. Admiral, if you'll put your chief of staff in touch with mine we'll start dealing with those. In the meantime..."

  "In the meantime, Niazgol," Tyler said, standing up. "I hope you will accept my hospitality until we can arrange secure movement to Earth."

  "Thank you, Tyler," the Glatun said, climbing to his feet wearily. "Admiral and... Admiral. Good night."

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  "Beor," Yud ZiDavas said, gesturing to a chair. "Sit."

  ZiDavas was Beor's control officer, a DeArch in the complex, quasi-hierarchy of the Kazi. As befitted a Kazi DeArch his office was small, spartan and in an out-of-the-way part of Vujiyen Base that had numerous hidden entrances and exits.

  When Beor was recruited to the Kazi—and almost anyone who volunteered without being recruited was turned down—she thought she understood its structure. The Kazi was covered in school and considered a normal and necessary part of Rangora society. It was easy to stray from the path of true fealty to the Emperor. Life was hard and stray thought was natural. The Kazi ensured that thought did not become word and word did not become action and action did not become habit. The Kazi was everywhere, ensuring that while life was sacrifice to the Emperor, the sacrifice did not become too great. They were the quality assurance of the Rangora. The gardeners of the finest race in the galaxy.

  The current assignment was not straining her credulity simply because she had lost her illusions long ago but retained her fealty. That was what the Kazi recruited for and why they didn't take volunteers.

  "ZiDavas," Beor said, sitting down and trying not to sigh in relief. She knew she wasn't safe in any cosmic sense. But if you made it to the point of sitting down, you hadn't been shot in the back of the head as you stepped through the door or never made it or got shot standing there, you were safe enough. You were, at the least, out of the cold.

  It was tacitly known in the offices that she was Kazi. Which was why the only person who spoke with her was To'Jopeviq. That was fine, she was used to that. It was the worrying that someone was going to stick a knife in her back because they'd been taking home data crystals to use in their home system and thought she was "onto them" that always worried her. She really, really didn't give a loff. She took them home, too.

  But too many "open" agents had been killed because somebody was afraid they were going to get taken to reeducation for petty peculation. Getting killed because someone was contemplating mutiny or treason? Breaks of the game. Because somebody was having sex with his secretary? It just wasn't something you wanted on your memorial chip.

  If you made it to sitting down in your control's office, absent mutiny or treason, you were probably going to make it through the next few minutes with nothing more than maybe a chewing out.

  Relief.

  "Verbal only," ZiDavas said. He wasn't going to comment on her expression simply because he knew what she was feeling. You didn't get to the guarded office without having been in the cold. "A fleet of Glatun battleships fought its way from near Glatus into the Terra system. The ship that made it may have been carrying something of importance. The other ships often sacrificed themselves to protect it."

  "Upgraded designs, AI codes..." Beor said. "It could even have been carrying some of the Benefactors. Any of which would make the Terran system more difficult."

  "How difficult?" ZiDavas asked.

  "Our intelligence is almost entirely in the negative," Beor said. "And although I know its importance, I am almost sick to death of listening to the arguing. Cogent arguing often but arguing nonetheless."

  "I would not consider it of supreme importance," ZiDavas said. "While commending you on your diligence."

  "With respect, DeArch," Beor said. "If you mean the security of the Empire's core worlds... perhaps not of supreme importance. If you mean unimportant in the grand scheme, I wish to respectfully disagree."

  "Make your... argument," ZiDavas said, bobbing his head.

  "The first point I must make is that this is solely my opinion," Beor said. "And flies in the face of most of the opinions expressed by the working group. But... I believe that is because they share a lack of belief in the data they are analyzing."

  "Are you saying they question the intelligence they are provided?" ZiDavas asked. "It is, at least in part, from the Kazi. It becomes almost a question of their belief in the Empire."

  "No," Beor said. "They believe the intelligence they are given. What little we have, and that is not a censure but reality. Let me rephrase. They do not believe their own analyses. Terra is a politically divided, down to the very politics of their main polity, relatively primitive, low-efficiency planet. It is not designed as an industrial world. It has no gravitics. It has primitive space flight. This is the condition on first contact. It is almost immediately made a satrap by the Horvath and goes into even greater stagnation. This is the condition as of seventeen years ago. The satrapy is broken. Terra begins to take its minor place on the interplanetary stage.

  "By rights, by every record of more-or-less similar cultures, it should take Terra some one hundred years to advance to the point of being a major culture."

  "Agreed," ZiDavas said. "Similar to the Rangora, the Horvath, those useless pigs, even the Glatun."

  "Consider the history of the Rangora," Beor said, bobbing her head in excitement. "Consider what would have happened if sixteen Glatun battleships entered the Rangora system seventeen years after we first stepped upon the stage."

  "We would have..." ZiDavas said, rocking back and forth. "I was about to say we would have defeated them. But that was an automatic answer. The truth is... I am unsure of the exact details of that period of history."

  "As am I," Beor said. The details of Rangora history were known to be blurred. "But I strongly doubt, even by what our betters present, that the Rangora could have stopped such attacks."

  "The Terrans had significant support from the Glatun," ZiDavas said. "We know this. You saw the report."

  "And could the Rangora have put such support into effect in seventeen years?" Beor said. "I am not questioning the value of our race, you understand..."

  "No," ZiDavas said. "You are making an interesting point. Go on."

  "I have been looking at this and looking," Beor said. "I see what was done and it makes sense. And it
even looks easy. We could, with some work, make similar constructions as defenses against attack should we need them. But... Given their starting point, to get to the point we knew they were at at the point that we lost contact, their advancements would have required an Imperial Project if the Rangora started from the same point."

  "Are you sure?" ZiDavas asked uncomfortably. Imperial Projects were only used for the very largest constructions and absorbed huge percentages of the Rangora GDP.

  "That model was done and it's solid," Beor said. "That's the point where the arguments really started. With the exception of Troy most of the defenses of the system are really infrastructure projects. They are civilian, not military. Now we are trying to tease out their possible capacity for war-making. Beyond 'what do we need to take the Terran system.' If you plug in that model... no one believes the analysis."

  "Which is?" ZiDavas said.

  "That within five years, Terra will be unconquerable by the Rangora," Beor said. "That within ten it will be a strategic threat. In twenty it will be impossible for the Rangora to stop if it takes an aggressive posture."

  ZiDavas contemplated her for a moment as if assessing her sanity.

  "I don't believe that analysis, either," the DeArch said.

  "And here is where, with the knowledge of what it means, I must confess a loss of faith," Beor said. "I do."

  "You were tasked to observe and liaise with the working group," ZiDavas said. "Not be an analyst. But I would have your thoughts on why."

  "I could not fully replicate the model," Beor said. "But to the extent that I could I did so. And I could find no fault. Again, seventeen years after full independence, using very little in the way of advanced Glatun technology, they defeated a major task force. Not one ship returned from the system. Using mostly their own technological concepts. The fleet was not defeated by the ships they were creating using copied Glatun techniques. It was defeated by an insanely large battlestation and a mining laser. A mining laser that, following the progression based on last update, is only going to grow to such levels as to make the system essentially unconquerable. They had to have had access to Glatun military mirrors to be able to defeat the Aggressors that handily. With such access, the present laser can defeat any shield except an assault vector and it is possible that even AVs could be defeated simply by the SAPL..." She paused, realizing that she was like anything but the cool and distant Kazi agent.