Fall of the White Ship Avatar by Brian Daley

back to convey what they'd seen were icons of the Third Breath of Humanity, which was the species' current great leap outward after the end of the dark age that followed the collapse of the Second Breath. The illusion of
    "true" adventure was the appeal of Sintilla's shameless fabrications.
    Once Floyt, who'd grown up on preterist Earth, hadn't given the matter much thought. Now he was as greedy for information as anyone else abroad in the Third Breath.
    Alacrity activated two infoscreens and a holographic projector, adjusting for quick scan. The news flashed in a dazzling mosaic, headline blurbs with in-depth stories available on access request. They glanced from display to display, barely keeping up with the highlight-dollops.
    Researchers on New Saigon claimed an astounding breakthrough that confirmed the existence of psi powers and made them subject to rational study and control. The new discipline was called Psience, its attendant mechanisms, psenses.
    "How many times have I heard that chestnut in one shape or another?" Alacrity snorted. "The sucker quotient never goes down … "
    The new official religion of the Trilateral Dominion was a kind of massage therapy.
    Due to genetic drift and loss of gene diversity in many human colonies isolated since the end of the Second Breath, plasm-trading looked to become one of the great growth industries and most competitive file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20kruis...y%20-%20Fall%20of%20the%20White%20Ship%20Avatar.htm (29 of 242)23-2-2006 17:03:12
    [Fitzhugh 3]-FALL OF THE WHITE SHIP AVATAR
    businesses of the Third Breath. Piracy and strongarm commercial violence were becoming more and more common.
    A war had broken out between the New Hanseatic League and the Bamboo Confederation over contractual obligations and alleged treaty violations. It revolved around disagreements arising from incompatible time-computation systems; delegations of temporal arbitrators were trying to hammer out a compromise by getting a mutually agreeable reckoning system in place. The announcer reminded the audience of the tragic Calendar Wars, which had started in much the same way.
    Rumors from Amalgamated Science Networks, Inc., had it that a true "psychocopier," allowing detailed and orderly mental writing, was in prototype phase.
    "Only about thirteen hundred years too late for poor old Boswell, who always wanted one," Floyt remarked dryly.
    Truth-in-advertising laws in the Spican Union now required that all clergy, professional councilors, clairvoyants, and lonely hearts agencies refer to those who engaged their services as "customers."
    And so it went. There were stories about the Camarilla, of course, and the uproar Alacrity and Floyt and their allies started, but not much new. Floyt was shocked to realize that he was already rather blasé about the whole thing. He and Alacrity scanned avidly, though, to see if the Astraea Imprimatur had been found, if the outlaw Janusz and Victoria Roper, the former Langstretch op, both of whom had led the fight against the Camarilla, had been captured. Most of all, Alacrity hunted the displays for word on Heart, the Nonpareil, the woman he loved, who'd stayed with Astraea Imprimatur on her escape, to aid Victoria and the injured Janusz in finding sanctuary. Heart's parting with Alacrity was bitter.
    There was no reference to any of that though; the companions tried to convince each other it was a good sign. Then one split-second image as Alacrity was fast-forwarding made them both gasp.
    "Alacrity, go back!"
    "I saw it, I saw it! Sports news; why didn't I think of it?"
    Then it was before them again on the holoimager: Celeste Aida, the gorgeous racing staryacht of Captain Softcoygne Dincrist, the Nonpareil's father.
    The last time Alacrity and Floyt had seen the ship, Celeste Aida swept past them rather than blowing Astraea Imprimatur to component forces, not because Dincrist couldn't do it, or didn't want to because his daughter was inboard, but because