Foundation's Mistress

39. Timely Disclosures

'The course of Arcadian history is characterised by perpetual struggle and change. Eventually, when the conflict came to an end, Saburra began to emerge.'

- Excerpt: Lectures on the History of Saburra, Charon the Archivist, Priestess of the Line of the Eldest, 177 SSA

'I don't understand,' Renate said to Julius Markham, the Executive General Manager of Aerospatial Logistics. She was standing in a briefing room, just off the frontal docking bay of The Spear, which was to become Renate's personal operations hub for the remainder of the voyage.

The days since the last Trial had passed far too slowly. Immediately afterwards, Hugo had made an announcement to all passengers confirming that the Trials were now at an end, and that the Executive Team had made their selection. The identity of the successful candidate would be announced in due course.

Renate had hardly been lulled by the sound of Hugo's bassy voice, assisted as it was by widescape. The statement gave Hugo plenty of wriggle-room to change his mind. She wished to God that Halcyon would just make the announcement and be done with it. Her apprehension was at an all time high, playing on her fear that she had been lied to, or worse - that she would be selected, then axed. Dealing with Hugo was impossible - she had no longer had any idea what to believe.

Yet the relevant members of the Halcyon staff seemed well-aware of her selection. In the last few days, she had been required to attend extensive briefings on the preparations that were underway, briefings that had included consultations with Grigor Halfen's team, meetings with biometrics specialists, with flight technicians and spatial engineers. Today, she had been scheduled to meet with the logistics crew.

When Julius Markham had arrived alone with a large Xadon box, it had taken her aback. Not because of Julius, per se - he had always been professional and courteous. It was just unusual for someone so senior to attend a briefing of this kind.

On seeing him, she laughed nervously. 'Oh dear,' she said. 'What have I done?'

'Nothing,' he assured her. 'What I'm about to tell you, however, is classified.'

'Here we go,' Renate said.

'Don't be nervous.'

'And yet... by some strange freak of happenstance completely unrelated to your manner and the as-yet inexplicable phenomenon of your presence, I remain jumpy.'

'Fair enough,' he said. 'But it's not an exercise in cloak and dagger, I assure you. It's just about the danger that this stuff,' he pointed at the Xadon box, 'could do up here, on The Spear.'

'You surely don't mean Xadon?'

'No, not Xadon.'

She stood, peering at the wide box. 'I don't understand,' she told him.

'Let me clarify,' he said, smiling. 'Thanks to the Trials, you have some familiarity with the phenomenon of terraforming.'

'Yes,' she said.

'More familiarity than most of us, actually,' Julius added. 'But the method you used in the Trials required an interface inside your helmet with gloves and haptic feedback.'

'Correct,' she said, wondering where this was going.

'That method,' he said, 'cannot be used sustainably down on Alkuon. Or to be more precise, you could use that method as a progenitor, but it will never work for the scions. We don't want to take technology of that kind down to the planet, because use of it in that capacity would compromise the long term goals of the mission.'