Pit’s rim, unaware that an edge of her dress dangled down into his lightbeam outputs.
“Why there?” he asked, ignoring the minor datafeed interruption. Despite her bias against computers, Matt hungered for the simple beauty of her chalk-white face, long black hair, and the sea-green eyes that now fixed on him.
“Greed,” she said dryly. “While the Stripper harvests our minerals, the Halicene Despot mines the K5’s asteroidal disk for useful ores.”
“Good.” Matt felt relieved that his opponent’s main strength was not yet in-system. “By the way, you haven’t told me—whatever made the Derindl Autarch accept a Stripper on his planet? I would think a forest-dependent species like the Derindl would never allow extensive surface mining.”
Eliana winced. “They wouldn’t. Normally. But . . . the human Trade group Clan Karamanlis was handling mineral trades at the time and they signed the contract on behalf of the Derindl.” She paused, her expression growing more pained. “They had a writ of mandamus from the Derindl Autarch to do anything needed to secure the neonatal placental units we needed to birth crossbreed children, like myself. And the leader of Clan Karamanlis had no son to carry on his lineage.”
Matt wondered if Eliana’s schooling included the story of Faust. “Does the Karamanlis Despot still handle interspecies Trade?”
She lifted an eyebrow. “Why?”
“Just curious. It’s worth knowing whether the idiot who created the need for a Vigilante is likely to give me repeat business.”
She smiled wryly. “An idiot he is, but he no longer runs things. His Clan has been replaced by Trade Clan Themistocles.”
Ahhh . “Any relation to you?”
Eliana nodded. “As I said earlier, my older half-brother is the Clan Despot in charge of the family business. And the colony. If that’s what you mean.” She looked away to the holosphere, as if their eye-to-eye intimacy had unsettled her.
“That is exactly what he meant,” commented Mata Hari from an overhead membrane. “And the Derindl Autarch—is it still in power?”
Eliana looked up, her distaste clear. “No! There has been a new Derindl Autarch, a female, for the past two Halcyon years. Of the caste Aggressors.”
Aggressors? Once more, the knowledge-dam broke. Once more, oceans of data engulfed Matt as the databyte nanocubes flooded his frontal cortex with a library of data. Time stretched out . . . .
Two hundred milliseconds .
There were five major Derindl castes—Aggressors, Conciliators, Mothers, Lifewebs, and Nurturers—along with thousands of minor ones. The method of Autarch selection was consensus among the nine thousand Nest leaders, each responsible for around 100,000 Derindl. For a decentralized power system, it had worked well over the millennia. But with the arrival of Anarchate diplomats and merchants, the need had arisen for aggressive, focused societal action by the Derindl. And their meritocracy-based system had been slow to respond. Enter the humans. With their Clan Despots, humans could undertake quick, decisive action. And then avoid living with the consequences of hasty judgment.
Mata Hari hovered dimly in the backwaters of Matt’s brain. The knowledge flood continued.
The pioneering human Waves usually found that democracy had to be sacrificed for the centralized decision-making capacity embodied in a Despot. Or similar oligarch. Of course, such assumptions had long ago resulted in the Despots of the Anarchate, who set forth the Anarchate’s First Rule— there is no interstellar Justice, and no Law, except that no planet interferes with the affairs of another . A neat update of the old divide-and-conquer strategy. Matt tasted sourness as he wondered if here, in Sigma Puppis, his species had begun a miniature Anarchate.
Three-quarters of a second .
Swimming to the surface of the data-feed ocean, Matt slowed his inputs and focused on the crouching figure of Eliana. His mind reached for her as
“Why there?” he asked, ignoring the minor datafeed interruption. Despite her bias against computers, Matt hungered for the simple beauty of her chalk-white face, long black hair, and the sea-green eyes that now fixed on him.
“Greed,” she said dryly. “While the Stripper harvests our minerals, the Halicene Despot mines the K5’s asteroidal disk for useful ores.”
“Good.” Matt felt relieved that his opponent’s main strength was not yet in-system. “By the way, you haven’t told me—whatever made the Derindl Autarch accept a Stripper on his planet? I would think a forest-dependent species like the Derindl would never allow extensive surface mining.”
Eliana winced. “They wouldn’t. Normally. But . . . the human Trade group Clan Karamanlis was handling mineral trades at the time and they signed the contract on behalf of the Derindl.” She paused, her expression growing more pained. “They had a writ of mandamus from the Derindl Autarch to do anything needed to secure the neonatal placental units we needed to birth crossbreed children, like myself. And the leader of Clan Karamanlis had no son to carry on his lineage.”
Matt wondered if Eliana’s schooling included the story of Faust. “Does the Karamanlis Despot still handle interspecies Trade?”
She lifted an eyebrow. “Why?”
“Just curious. It’s worth knowing whether the idiot who created the need for a Vigilante is likely to give me repeat business.”
She smiled wryly. “An idiot he is, but he no longer runs things. His Clan has been replaced by Trade Clan Themistocles.”
Ahhh . “Any relation to you?”
Eliana nodded. “As I said earlier, my older half-brother is the Clan Despot in charge of the family business. And the colony. If that’s what you mean.” She looked away to the holosphere, as if their eye-to-eye intimacy had unsettled her.
“That is exactly what he meant,” commented Mata Hari from an overhead membrane. “And the Derindl Autarch—is it still in power?”
Eliana looked up, her distaste clear. “No! There has been a new Derindl Autarch, a female, for the past two Halcyon years. Of the caste Aggressors.”
Aggressors? Once more, the knowledge-dam broke. Once more, oceans of data engulfed Matt as the databyte nanocubes flooded his frontal cortex with a library of data. Time stretched out . . . .
Two hundred milliseconds .
There were five major Derindl castes—Aggressors, Conciliators, Mothers, Lifewebs, and Nurturers—along with thousands of minor ones. The method of Autarch selection was consensus among the nine thousand Nest leaders, each responsible for around 100,000 Derindl. For a decentralized power system, it had worked well over the millennia. But with the arrival of Anarchate diplomats and merchants, the need had arisen for aggressive, focused societal action by the Derindl. And their meritocracy-based system had been slow to respond. Enter the humans. With their Clan Despots, humans could undertake quick, decisive action. And then avoid living with the consequences of hasty judgment.
Mata Hari hovered dimly in the backwaters of Matt’s brain. The knowledge flood continued.
The pioneering human Waves usually found that democracy had to be sacrificed for the centralized decision-making capacity embodied in a Despot. Or similar oligarch. Of course, such assumptions had long ago resulted in the Despots of the Anarchate, who set forth the Anarchate’s First Rule— there is no interstellar Justice, and no Law, except that no planet interferes with the affairs of another . A neat update of the old divide-and-conquer strategy. Matt tasted sourness as he wondered if here, in Sigma Puppis, his species had begun a miniature Anarchate.
Three-quarters of a second .
Swimming to the surface of the data-feed ocean, Matt slowed his inputs and focused on the crouching figure of Eliana. His mind reached for her as
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