Nothing.
He reread the final communication from the Poet.
And he found the cinnamon. Several times. Once again, the scent was barely detectable within the overwhelming vanilla of the straightforward text.
It can’t be that easy, he thought. Can’t.
He took a pen and physically circled each instance on the page.
“LOVE, translate the esters I’ve just circled. Top to bottom. Use the final grouping as a syntax constructor.”
But he was already doing it in his head and was smiling broadly before LOVE finished her more accurate and idiomatic version.
He had it.
Attention, begin primary information: Sporata war vessel Guardian of Night en route to defect to Sol C government. This vessel mounts newly gleaned Sporata weapon of unknown potential and possible strategic-level value. Say again: A.S.C. Guardian of Night with potential strategic weapon seeks political asylum with United States government. Begin secondary information: Mutualist vessel Efficacy of Symbiosis to rendezvous with defecting Sporata vessel Guardian of Night in vicininty of Sol system to effect transfer of refugee passengers to Efficacy of Symbiosis . Say again: vessel Efficacy of Symbiosis, non-Administration, successionist craft to rendezvous with defecting Guardian of Night to effect transfer of Mutualist Shiro refugees. Begin tertiary information: Sirius armada to recommence gleaning of Sol system within current variado . Repeat: Sirius armada to reinvade Sol C within five semanatos .
Objective: arrive before Administration invasion armada. Deliver weapon to Sol C. Discuss alliance with Mutualist enclaves. Engage Sirius armada.
Plan of action: request meeting highest levels with humans and their servant programs. Request aid, alliance, joint defensive agreement. A.S.C. Guardian of Night desires to trade advanced, recently gleaned weaponry for terms of political sanctuary. Mutualist vessel Efficacy of Symbiosis desires discussion of Sol C alliance with successionist enclaves.
Begin technical information: descriptive schematic of principal weapon on military vessel is as follows—
There was more, much more. It was a manual. Instructions for using some kind of sceeve superweapon. All the details were there, although Leher didn’t understand the science. Somebody would.
Then, after the weapon information, a final message.
Final rendezvous location to follow in separate transmission.
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Leher thought.
“Do you see this, LOVE?”
“It’s quite clear, LTC Leher, now that you have pointed it out.”
“So I’m not dreaming?”
“You are producing alpha waves indicative of a conscious state,” said LOVE.
Strategic weapon. Terms of sanctuary.
The sceeve bastard, hiding all that in plain sight.
He wasn’t a mindless ranter masquerading as an artist.
He really had a way with words, after all.
FOUR
31 December 2075
Dallas, Texas, U.S.A.
Capitol Complex Perimeter
Extry Captain Jim Coalbridge buttoned his greatcoat against the Texas wind. A dusting of what looked like snow but what was actually “curd,” or neutralized sceeve military nanotech, was falling on the downtown streets, coating them with a fine gray-white powder. The day was mild for December in Dallas, but Coalbridge was used to the regulated temperatures of spacecraft, and he’d been shivering since stepping out of the downtown train platform.
Coalbridge turned up his coat’s collar. He had grown up in Oklahoma, and he knew that Southern prairie weather could be unpredictable. There were no nearby mountain ranges—practically no natural features whatsoever—to direct the huge pressure cells that roamed the plains. Any stray upper-level current might mean a thirty- or forty-degree shift in temperature within hours. North Texas summers were unbearably hot. Fall and spring were tolerable—but those seasons were filled with tornadoes and hurricanes. Now, with global weather patterns thrown into chaos by the sceeve planetary attacks, there
He reread the final communication from the Poet.
And he found the cinnamon. Several times. Once again, the scent was barely detectable within the overwhelming vanilla of the straightforward text.
It can’t be that easy, he thought. Can’t.
He took a pen and physically circled each instance on the page.
“LOVE, translate the esters I’ve just circled. Top to bottom. Use the final grouping as a syntax constructor.”
But he was already doing it in his head and was smiling broadly before LOVE finished her more accurate and idiomatic version.
He had it.
Attention, begin primary information: Sporata war vessel Guardian of Night en route to defect to Sol C government. This vessel mounts newly gleaned Sporata weapon of unknown potential and possible strategic-level value. Say again: A.S.C. Guardian of Night with potential strategic weapon seeks political asylum with United States government. Begin secondary information: Mutualist vessel Efficacy of Symbiosis to rendezvous with defecting Sporata vessel Guardian of Night in vicininty of Sol system to effect transfer of refugee passengers to Efficacy of Symbiosis . Say again: vessel Efficacy of Symbiosis, non-Administration, successionist craft to rendezvous with defecting Guardian of Night to effect transfer of Mutualist Shiro refugees. Begin tertiary information: Sirius armada to recommence gleaning of Sol system within current variado . Repeat: Sirius armada to reinvade Sol C within five semanatos .
Objective: arrive before Administration invasion armada. Deliver weapon to Sol C. Discuss alliance with Mutualist enclaves. Engage Sirius armada.
Plan of action: request meeting highest levels with humans and their servant programs. Request aid, alliance, joint defensive agreement. A.S.C. Guardian of Night desires to trade advanced, recently gleaned weaponry for terms of political sanctuary. Mutualist vessel Efficacy of Symbiosis desires discussion of Sol C alliance with successionist enclaves.
Begin technical information: descriptive schematic of principal weapon on military vessel is as follows—
There was more, much more. It was a manual. Instructions for using some kind of sceeve superweapon. All the details were there, although Leher didn’t understand the science. Somebody would.
Then, after the weapon information, a final message.
Final rendezvous location to follow in separate transmission.
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Leher thought.
“Do you see this, LOVE?”
“It’s quite clear, LTC Leher, now that you have pointed it out.”
“So I’m not dreaming?”
“You are producing alpha waves indicative of a conscious state,” said LOVE.
Strategic weapon. Terms of sanctuary.
The sceeve bastard, hiding all that in plain sight.
He wasn’t a mindless ranter masquerading as an artist.
He really had a way with words, after all.
FOUR
31 December 2075
Dallas, Texas, U.S.A.
Capitol Complex Perimeter
Extry Captain Jim Coalbridge buttoned his greatcoat against the Texas wind. A dusting of what looked like snow but what was actually “curd,” or neutralized sceeve military nanotech, was falling on the downtown streets, coating them with a fine gray-white powder. The day was mild for December in Dallas, but Coalbridge was used to the regulated temperatures of spacecraft, and he’d been shivering since stepping out of the downtown train platform.
Coalbridge turned up his coat’s collar. He had grown up in Oklahoma, and he knew that Southern prairie weather could be unpredictable. There were no nearby mountain ranges—practically no natural features whatsoever—to direct the huge pressure cells that roamed the plains. Any stray upper-level current might mean a thirty- or forty-degree shift in temperature within hours. North Texas summers were unbearably hot. Fall and spring were tolerable—but those seasons were filled with tornadoes and hurricanes. Now, with global weather patterns thrown into chaos by the sceeve planetary attacks, there
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