particularly with everyone trying to keep a safe distance from Warrior Commander. The medics noticed this also, and demanded that all nonmedical personnel get out of the room.
She quickly complied, followed by Warrior Commander, and found a crowd had formed outside Joyce’s room. People started appearing from nowhere. She saw Lieutenant Oleander appear with a thin sallow man.
Captain Doreen Floros, another Directorate golem, was suddenly at her elbow and remarked, “You seem to attract explosives, Major Kedros.”
“What happened?” asked Benjamin Pilgrimage.
Then it got crazy—rather, crazier . Feed correspondents showed up, with their platform cam-eyes and bright lights. Everybody who was anybody seemed to be squeezing into the infirmary hallway, shouting questions at Ariane. She started edging into the no-man’s zone around Warrior Commander, a perimeter of about one meter, just to get space to breathe. Against her back, she felt cold air stirring those black robes. Once, when she glanced down and behind her, she glimpsed a writhing darkness within a fold of the robes, whereupon she suppressed a shudder and kept her gaze forward.
“Clear this infirmary. Now!” This came from the Chief Medic, who persevered with a loud voice. Pilgrimage security came to her rescue, breaking up the crowd.
“Thank you for saving our lives,” Ariane said quietly, directing her words over her shoulder.
Warrior Commander’s head dipped in acknowledgment.
“Research is in shambles, SP, particularly the programs for the Builders’ buoy.” Maria Guillotte was conferencing in from the surface of Priamos. Her image showed the upper half of her body for somaural communication.
“That’s good. We want to replace those contractors with Terran companies,” Ensign Walker said.
A typical response from a young Terran Space Force officer, and State Prince Isrid Sun Parmet gave him a tight smile, adding a subtle flourish with his fingers that said, You still have much to learn . Ensign Walker’s jaw tightened.
Maria, who had worked for Isrid for many years in TEBI and then as his personal aide, explained. “We can’t just move in on other contracts or leases, Ensign. The Consortium’s S-triple-ECB requires an organized, and unfortunately bureaucratic, process.”
“Who owns those leases?” Walker was apparently familiar with the Consortium’s Space Exploration, Exploitation, and Economics Control Board, or SEECB.
“Aether Exploration,” Maria said.
“Oh.” Walker’s eyebrows went up.
So did Isrid’s assessment of Ensign Walker. He’d hoped to get an experienced officer to manage security on Beta Priamos Station, but at least Walker had read his classified background briefings. The ensign would know the delicate difficulties: Isrid had coerced Aether Exploration, in the person of Major Ariane Kedros, into signing leases over to Terran interests. Ensign Walker might also know more classified details, such as Kedros’s being kidnapped by Maria, then tortured by Nathanial Wolf Kim, both of whom were Isrid’s aides. However, Isrid hoped Walker was oblivious to the most recent reason Kedros might hate him: His co-wife Sabina had taken out her revenge and her rage, physically, upon an inebriated Kedros. That seemed so long ago, although it happened only a day before Abram’s aborted takeover.
“We can petition for contractor reassignment, but I doubt Aether Exploration will consider it.” Isrid’s co-wife Garnet showed her usual efficiency, making a note on her slate.
When Pilgrimage HQ contracted Isrid and his staff to manage the station, Garnet took over administrative work in the scramble to continue Priamos research and development after Abram’s short reign of terror. Abram had killed off almost a fifth of the civilian contractors because they “worked for Minoans.” Specifically, they’d worked for an Autonomist company named Hellas Nautikos that was majority-funded with Minoan capital.
“Don’t
She quickly complied, followed by Warrior Commander, and found a crowd had formed outside Joyce’s room. People started appearing from nowhere. She saw Lieutenant Oleander appear with a thin sallow man.
Captain Doreen Floros, another Directorate golem, was suddenly at her elbow and remarked, “You seem to attract explosives, Major Kedros.”
“What happened?” asked Benjamin Pilgrimage.
Then it got crazy—rather, crazier . Feed correspondents showed up, with their platform cam-eyes and bright lights. Everybody who was anybody seemed to be squeezing into the infirmary hallway, shouting questions at Ariane. She started edging into the no-man’s zone around Warrior Commander, a perimeter of about one meter, just to get space to breathe. Against her back, she felt cold air stirring those black robes. Once, when she glanced down and behind her, she glimpsed a writhing darkness within a fold of the robes, whereupon she suppressed a shudder and kept her gaze forward.
“Clear this infirmary. Now!” This came from the Chief Medic, who persevered with a loud voice. Pilgrimage security came to her rescue, breaking up the crowd.
“Thank you for saving our lives,” Ariane said quietly, directing her words over her shoulder.
Warrior Commander’s head dipped in acknowledgment.
“Research is in shambles, SP, particularly the programs for the Builders’ buoy.” Maria Guillotte was conferencing in from the surface of Priamos. Her image showed the upper half of her body for somaural communication.
“That’s good. We want to replace those contractors with Terran companies,” Ensign Walker said.
A typical response from a young Terran Space Force officer, and State Prince Isrid Sun Parmet gave him a tight smile, adding a subtle flourish with his fingers that said, You still have much to learn . Ensign Walker’s jaw tightened.
Maria, who had worked for Isrid for many years in TEBI and then as his personal aide, explained. “We can’t just move in on other contracts or leases, Ensign. The Consortium’s S-triple-ECB requires an organized, and unfortunately bureaucratic, process.”
“Who owns those leases?” Walker was apparently familiar with the Consortium’s Space Exploration, Exploitation, and Economics Control Board, or SEECB.
“Aether Exploration,” Maria said.
“Oh.” Walker’s eyebrows went up.
So did Isrid’s assessment of Ensign Walker. He’d hoped to get an experienced officer to manage security on Beta Priamos Station, but at least Walker had read his classified background briefings. The ensign would know the delicate difficulties: Isrid had coerced Aether Exploration, in the person of Major Ariane Kedros, into signing leases over to Terran interests. Ensign Walker might also know more classified details, such as Kedros’s being kidnapped by Maria, then tortured by Nathanial Wolf Kim, both of whom were Isrid’s aides. However, Isrid hoped Walker was oblivious to the most recent reason Kedros might hate him: His co-wife Sabina had taken out her revenge and her rage, physically, upon an inebriated Kedros. That seemed so long ago, although it happened only a day before Abram’s aborted takeover.
“We can petition for contractor reassignment, but I doubt Aether Exploration will consider it.” Isrid’s co-wife Garnet showed her usual efficiency, making a note on her slate.
When Pilgrimage HQ contracted Isrid and his staff to manage the station, Garnet took over administrative work in the scramble to continue Priamos research and development after Abram’s short reign of terror. Abram had killed off almost a fifth of the civilian contractors because they “worked for Minoans.” Specifically, they’d worked for an Autonomist company named Hellas Nautikos that was majority-funded with Minoan capital.
“Don’t
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