Sword of the Lamb (46 page)

Alex studied him, eyes veiled, then turned to Ben, and the same conviction was in his face as in Andreas’s. Finally, he looked around at Erica and smiled.

“Your survival is remarkable.” Then, to Andreas, “Dr. Riis, I will be guided in this by you.”

Andreas needed a moment to recover, and Erica had to smile; he was only now aware that he’d been tested.

“I’m . . . gratified, Alex.”

Then Alex rose, frowning, hands propped on his hips. “The problem, however, isn’t solved. The question now is, if we’re stymied at doing anything about the Ransom Alternative for the time being, is Ussher also stymied?”

Erica answered that. “Yes, I think he is, and I think the Ransom Alternative will just have to be our secret until you’re established in the Phoenix, and especially until we have the LR-MT.”

He considered that, still frowning. “But the other councilors know my identity. Won’t some of them be a little curious?”

“Undoubtedly, but Andreas can salve their curiosity without encouraging speculation or discussion. Before your potential in the Phoenix can be assessed, you must prove yourself as a working member.” She paused, giving him a slow smile. “And you’ll be proving yourself for a long time to come.”

“Besides,” Ben put in, “Predis will help discourage any speculation about you in the Council. He doesn’t want them comparing the Peladeen and Ransom alternatives, because he’ll come out on the short end. And the Peladeen Alternative hinges on the LR-MT, too. He can’t do a damn thing until we have it.”

Alex raised an eyebrow. “Can’t he? You mean he
probably
won’t do a damn thing until we have it.” Then he shrugged. “But I suppose a positive probability is better than a negative certainty. So, now we must work out some plans for the survival of our conspiracy. Tomorrow I begin my career with FO, and it will be some time before we can meet again without attracting undue attention.”

He clasped his hands behind his back as he resumed his pacing. Calculating again, computing the variables. Erica felt herself relaxing as if a burden had been lifted from her shoulders. Perhaps it was only that the lines had been drawn and there could be no turning back.

And she was thinking of Rich. Alex Ransom had come to Fina to finish his brother’s work, and that was one more reason to be grateful for having known and loved a saint.

27 Augus 3253
Fina

Alex:

Call me a quiv for spooking and leaving you with nothing but a lettape, but I don’t like wave-offs. You know about my SI assignment. Venturi gave me a fast pass on the special training, and I’ve opted for the Helen chapter. Helen is home to me, and I know the ground; I have in-lines there no one else can tap.

I can’t say the same of Fina, but I don’t like the smell of what’s going down here. You know about it; you’re neck deep in it. I have a good nose and I’m good at addition, but I can only guess out the real stat. I’m crossing your lines to say this much anyway. But I have a word of wise to leave you. No, I have two. First, I read the tooth-gimmer clear; I know his ilk. You know politics; that’s your gim, and I hold faith you can take him down at that. But he’s no gentleman born, and he needs watching.

What I’m trying to say is don’t ever turn your back on Predis Ussher. You’ll end up with a blade in your heart, and I mean that literally. I came up foot to foot with killers; I can smell them out as easy as the Shads. And my kins have a saying: You read a man by what you see in the mirror. I’ve pulled a few down, one way or another, and I read Ussher. You do, too, but I don’t think you have it in you to read him all the way. Maybe you do. Anyway, keep him in your line of sight.

The second word I’ll leave is this: If it comes to a face-off and you need a little backup or just a sharp side-eye, you’ll know where I am, or you can find out.

That’s all. Just hold me in faith. I’m cleave to you, brother, because I have you smelled out, too. I’m cleave for personal reasons, but I’m also seeing long, and I’m thinking about the Phoenix and everything past that.

You and I will meet again sooner or later, and until then we’ll both have plenty to track. I expect to see you in Garris’s chair before the year comes around twice. Just keep your eyes open and, remember, all I need is a sign.

Fortune, brother—
Jael

ACOLYTE: (Bond Religion) A student and assistant to a Bond Shepherd; acolytes are chosen by the Shepherds and generally succeed them on their deaths.

AGE OF RIGHTS: Age of legal maturity for Elite; it is celebrated on the twentieth birthday.

AIRCARS: Short-range, airborne vehicles powered by nulgrav and generally operated on Trafficon grids. Most personally owned ‘cars belong to the Elite or the Concord or Church, although they may be flown by Fesh in their work. Only fifteen percent of the Fesh own ‘cars, the remainder depending for personal transportation on Robek Transystems air taxis, subtrains, or intercity shuttles.

Types of aircars:

AIRDRAY
: A large vehicle designed for transporting freight. ‘Drays range in capacity from ten to 100 dekatons.

AIRSCOOTER
: A small open ‘car with a maximum seating capacity of four, generally operated within factories, mines, etc.

AIRSHUTTLE
: A vehicle used for transporting large numbers of people. ‘Shuttles range in capacity from fifty to 200 passengers.

AIRTAXI
: Two- to six-passenger rental ‘cars equipped with voice-responsive autonav systems. ‘Taxis are activated automatically when money is placed in a designated slot. Cost of ‘taxi rental is based on the distance traversed.

ALLEGIANCE: A permanent indentureship to the House (or to the Concord or Church) into which Bonds or Fesh are born; that is, the House to which their parents, particularly fathers, are “allieged.” The latter term is generally used in reference to Fesh; Bonds are termed “Bonded” to a House. “Allegiance shifts” from one House to another, or to the Concord or Church, are enacted only on approval of the First Lord of the House.

ALLEGIANCE BADGE: A small cloth insignia bearing the crest of the House (or of the Concord or Church) to which a Fesh or Bond is allieged; generally worn on the left shoulder of an outer garment, such as a cloak or cape.

ALL-GOD: The supreme deity of the Mezionic pantheon.

ANTISEP SHEET: (Medical) A thin plasex sheet chemically treated to act as an antiseptic barrier for the protection of open wounds prior to treatment.

AQ: Aptitude Quotient. A statistical profile, based on standardized test scores, of an individual’s vocational aptitudes.

ARCHIVES: An agency of the Concord authorized to file and preserve historic documents and to serve as a data storage and dispersal center for public records and documents. It has close ties with the University System and its Library, but is a discrete agency.

ATMOBUBBLE: An energy field in which the charged interface forms a “bubble” that contains interior atmosphere while excluding exterior atmosphere (or vacuum); it may also be used to selectively exclude particular radiation wavelengths.

AUTONAV SYSTEM: Automatic computerized navigation and guidance system for ships or vehicles.

AUTOSPENSER: Generally called a “ ’spenser.” An automatic dispenser, usually for food or beverages.

BACTERIOSTATIC GAUZE: (Medical) A porous fabric, chemically treated to inhibit bacterial growth, used for bandaging wounds or incisions.

BARRENGORSE: A spiny-lobed, photosynthetic organism, generally classified as a plant, native to the Barrens of Castor and one of the predominant species in the Marching, or Pygmy, Forests. It is a hydrotropic “migrator,” moving by a process of rapid growth in low-lying, branching tendrils on the surface, and in deep-probing roots below the surface, both of which are abandoned as quickly as new shoots and roots grow, allowing the plant to follow its underground water sources.

BARRENS: The minimally fertile temperate zone of Castor between the icecaps and the equatorial desert, or Midhar.

BASIC SCHOOL: The educational system for Fesh; specifically, a ten-year mandatory program administered by the Houses (or the Concord or Church), generally following guidelines established by the University System’s Department of Education. Additional one- to three-year vocational training programs are also provided by House Basic School systems, although specialized training is often a prerogative of professional Guilds.

BEAMED POWER: Solar energy collected on orbiting satellites (or on surface power-receptor stations on the Centauran Inner Planets), then transmitted to planetside receptors in the form of microwave beams, which power the high-gain kinetic (HGK) generators that produce electrical current.

BELNONG: A vertebrate triped native to Castor, a symbiont with various photosynthetic organisms of the Marching Forests. It is most notable for its capacity to regenerate itself from as little as ten percent of its body, a process that provides one means of species reproduction, although it is also trisexual and reproduces oviparously. The eggs are incubated by certain species of photosynthetic symbionts.

BEYOND: (Bond Religion) The “Realm Beyond the Farthest Star.” The Bond equivalent of the Heavenly Realm, residence of the All-God and Holy Mezion and the saints, and place of reward after death for the souls of persons deemed worthy.

BEYOND SOUL: (Bond Religion) A manifestation of a dead person assumed to reside in the Beyond; a ghost.

BIOMONITOR: (Medical) A device for monitoring vital signs generally fitted in a “biomonitor cuff,” which is attached to the patient’s wrist. Its signals can also be displayed on a “biomonitor screen.”

BLESSED: (Bond Religion)
n
. Living persons regarded as especially favored or in some way singled out by the All-God and Holy Mezion.

BOARD OF CENSORS: A committee made up of ten members of the Court of Lords, each of whom serves a five-year term. Its function is to designate Priority ratings for any material published, exhibited, performed, etc. in the Concord. Its prerogatives include destroying or prohibiting the publication, exhibition, or performance of material it judges subversive or immoral and prosecuting persons or even Houses guilty of publishing, etc., or in any way disseminating condemned material. Penalties range from fines to execution.

BOARD OF FRANCHISES: A committee made up of ten members of the Court of Lords, each of whom serves a five-year term. Its function is to distribute and allot House franchises, and to mediate disputes involving franchises. Its judgments are legally binding, and a Lord found guilty of franchise infringement is subject to fines or even imprisonment and forfeiture of First Lordship.

BOARD OF SUCCESSION: A committee made up of ten members of the Court of Lords, each of whom serves a five-year term. Its function is to oversee House successions and to determine whether they are consistent with the successional restrictions delineated in the Concord Charter. Lords judged guilty of perpetrating illegal succession are subject to imprisonment and removal, with their heirs, from their House’s succession.

BOND: The term refers to the class or to individuals within it. Bonds are the lowest class in the Concord, an illiterate, slave/serf class comprising approximately seventy percent of the population and functioning as an unskilled labor pool.

BOOKTAPE: A lengthy literary work encoded on tape, from which the text and/or illustrations are displayed on a reading screen.

BORASIL: Boron, silicon, and oxygen glass; in spun form, it is used as a protective and insulating coating.

CAFFAY: A beverage brewed by various methods, most of them involving steam, from the roasted beans of the coffee plant. (“Coffee” has come to refer to a beverage made with synthesized flavoring. Like the original, it also contains caffeine.)

CANTAS: Also “High Cantas.” Religious ceremonies celebrated in both Orthodox and Bond Churches commemorating various sacred events or seasons.

CARRAMINX: An organism native to Castor classified in popular terminology as a “plant-animal.” It is photosynthetic and reproduces by seeding, but is rootless and mobile, has a rudimentary nervous system, and five compound eyes responsive to both light and color.

CENTAURI SYSTEM: The planetary system of the star Alpha Centauri A. The seven planets in the system are: Perseus, Dionysus, and Pan, the Inner Planets; Pollux and Castor, the Twin Planets; and Tityus and Hercules, the Outer Planets.

The Inner Planets are all small (Perseus, the largest, has a diameter of approximately 4,000 km), rocky, geologically inactive bodies devoid of atmosphere. The distance between their orbits is relatively small, making them markedly erratic.

The Twin Planets, Castor and Pollux, were so named because they are similar in size (approximately 9,000 and 13,500 km in diameter respectively) and revolve around a common center of gravity in a single orbit. Pollux has an atmosphere similar to Terra’s and is even more an oceanic planet. On Castor liquid water is found under the surface, depending on the season and latitude, but above the surface it is either vaporized or frozen in the large icecaps. Castor’s thin atmosphere is predominantly nitrogen and carbon dioxide with less than 5.3 percent oxygen.

The Outer Planets, Tityus and Hercules, are gaseous giants comparable to the Solar System’s three ringed giants, and the main constituents of their atmospheres are hydrogen, helium, methane, and ammonia. The diameter of Hercules, the seventh and largest Centauran planet, is only a thousand kilometers less than Jupiter’s. Tityus, Centauri’s only ringed planet, rivals Saturn in the extent and complexity of its ring system. Hercules has ten small, icy satellites; Tityus only five.

CHAIRMAN OF THE DIRECTORATE: The Lord elected by the Directorate (although the position is in practice hereditary) as the presiding officer of the Directorate of the Concord of the Loyal Houses.

CHAN D’AMOR: A legendary love story, sometimes in the form of a poem or song.

CHRONO-SPATIAL EVERSION: A principle of the Drakonian Theory applying to time/space modification.

CIRCLE: In fencing, the area to which combatants are confined in a formal fencing match. The established dimension is a diameter of five meters, the perimeter of which is usually marked with a luminescent, photosensitive line; a bell sounds if a combatant steps on or over the line, and a point is awarded his opponent.

CLARIPIPES: (Musical) A small wind instrument made up of twelve metallic tubes of graduated lengths.

CLAVALIER: (Musical) A large percussion stringed instrument played by manipulating a keyboard. The true clavalier employs no electronic amplification.

COGNATE HOUSE: A House related to another by common ancestry.

COMARIS: An herb used as a seasoning, derived from the leaves of a plant (the comara) native to Castor.

COMCENTER: Communications center. A central terminal through which all communications and information pertinent to a particular type of operation are channeled.

COMCONSOLE: A desk-sized unit equipped with various communication devices, such as vidicom, intercom, lettape screen and recorder, reading screen, memfile inputs, and holojector.

COMMUTRONICS: A term encompassing all aspects of the communications industry.

COMPOUND: (Bond) A housing complex for Bonds providing living quarters, dining halls, and all other basic needs. Compounds are invariably walled and each houses eight to ten thousand Bonds.

COMPSYSTEM: Computer system.

‘COM SEQ: Pocketcom sequence. The number sequence denoting the microfrequency assigned to an individual’s personal pocketcom.

COMSYSTEM: Communications system.

CON-CONDITIONING: (Phoenix) Contingency conditioning. After an initial “set,” and with the consent of the subject, the operator can make a conditioned command without going through the usual process of establishing a receptivity state for conditioning.

CONCORD OF THE LOYAL HOUSES: An alliance of Houses founded in 3105, “Loyal” indicating their opposition to the rebellious Houses of the Mankeen League. It is generally referred to as “the Concord,” which designates both the alliance itself and the administrative institution created by and governing it. The latter is to a great degree independent of the member Houses and wields some authority over them, although its power is ultimately derived from common consent of the Houses.

CONCORD: Also “ ’Cord.” Monetary unit printed on six by ten centimeter vellam sheets in denominations of one-tenth, one-half, one, ten, one hundred, one thousand, ten thousand, etc., up to one million.

CONCORDIA: Capital city of the Concord, located on the southern coast of Conta Austrail, Terra.

CONDITIONING: (Phoenix) A method of controlling another person’s behavior and memory by means of hypnotic techniques augmented by electronic manipulation of brainwave patterns.

CONFLEET: The military branch of the Concord.

CONFLEET WING: A major Confleet tactical division made up of a Command Unit consisting of one TC Corsair flagship with a complement of ten Corvets and eighty-nine Falcons, plus five units, each of which consists of nine subunits of nineteen Falcons under the command of one Corvet.

CON-LEVELS: (Phoenix) Conditioning levels. Four recognized levels indicating degrees of mental control over another person achieved through conditioning techniques.

CONMED: A branch of the Concord providing medical services and research and training facilities.

CONPOL: The police branch of the Concord.

CON-RAD: (Phoenix) A small transceiver worn in the ear and used for identifying fellow agents; it sets up a signal tone increasing in volume in ratio to its proximity to another con-rad on the same frequency.

CONSCRIPTS: Fesh given compulsory allegiance shifts from Houses to the Concord to fulfill tax levies.