The Consuming Fire (The Interdependency #2)(11)

Assan looked uncomfortable. “It’s still within its acceptable window for arrival.”

“And there is a civil war going on at End,” Ranatunga noted. “That will have some effect on the arrival of ships.”

“The committee may suppose it has the luxury of assuming pedestrian causes for the late arrival of every single ship from one of our states,” Grayland said. “We don’t. The Count Claremont, at the direction of my father, studied the data from Flow streams for three decades and predicted to within hours the collapse of the Flow stream from End to Hub. Within another month, the Flow stream from Hub to Terhathum is very likely to be next. We have made all this data available to this committee, to parliament and to scientists; and Lord Marce, the Count Claremont’s son, has stayed to explain the data to everyone who chooses to listen.”

“And yet neither parliament nor the scientists are entirely convinced,” murmured Korbijn.

“There is a lot of data to cover, and unfortunately not very much time,” Grayland said. “We regret to say they are likely to be better convinced when the Terhathum Flow collapses.”

“If,” Assan said.

Grayland shook her said. “When.”

“And you’ve seen this in your visions,” Assan said, pushing.

Grayland smiled at this. “One does not need visions when one has data. In both cases, however, one does need to be willing to see. We need this committee to see both. We need you to understand the data. We need you to have faith. And if you will not do either, then, yes, Lord Teran, we will accept simple obedience. That will do for now.” She stood, obliging her executive committee to stand in return. Then she nodded, acknowledging them, and left the room.

*

“I think I may have made a mistake,” Cardenia Wu-Patrick said, to the ghost of her father.

Attavio VI, or more accurately his ghost, or even more accurately the computer simulation of Attavio VI, fashioned from a lifetime of recorded memories, emotions and actions, nodded. “You may have,” he said.

“Thanks,” Cardenia, who when in her full majesty was called Grayland II, said. “Your vote of confidence here is inspiring.”

The two of them were in the Memory Room, a large and largely unadorned room accessible only to the current emperox. Inside of it was a virtual assistant named Jiyi who could, when asked, call up the avatar of any of the previous emperoxs, down to and including the first, Rachela. When Cardenia’s time as emperox was done, her memories, emotions and actions would also be downloaded to serve the uses of whomever would be the next emperox.

If there was going to be one, which at the moment struck Cardenia as a question without a very good answer.

“I was only agreeing with you,” Attavio VI said. “You seem upset and I thought agreeing with you might make you feel better.”

“Not in this particular case, I have to say. We need to work on your program’s ability to pick up emotional cues.”

“Well, then.” Attavio folded his hands together, standing while his daughter sat. “Give me more detail on what you think you’ve made a mistake about.”

“About saying that I’m having visions.”

“About the end of the Interdependency.”

“Yes.”

“Oh. Well, yes. You probably did make a mistake about that.”

Cardenia threw up her hands.

“I’m wondering what you expected,” Attavio VI said.

“Are you really?”

“To the extent that I am able to, yes.”

“Tell me why.”

“You are attempting to re-create what Rachela did, but you don’t have Rachela’s starting conditions. You don’t have the support of the Wu family or its resources to support you in other areas. You don’t have the leverage with the noble houses to make deals. The only support you have is likely to be the Interdependent Church, and that only grudgingly. Finally, you’re not building an empire. You’re attempting to dismantle one. One that has been successful for a thousand years.”

“I know all of that,” Cardenia said. “I also considered that we’ve already had one Flow stream closed up and that more will close soon after. I know that I don’t have time to build consensus in the parliament or among the guilds or even among scientists before things start to fall apart. I need to get out ahead of the crisis in a way that lets me save as many people as possible. The way to do that is through the church. And the way to do that is in a way that gives the church no doctrinal way to argue. By claiming prophecy.”

“You do understand that ‘no doctrinal way to argue’ does not mean ‘no argument,’” Attavio VI said. “A church is an institution separate from the religion it serves. It’s filled with people. And you know how people are.”

Cardenia nodded. “I thought I understood that.”

“But now you have doubts.”

“I do. I didn’t think that I could turn the church instantly. I’m not stupid. But I thought there would be more cooperation. More understanding of what it was that I was doing.”

“You haven’t expressed this to the leaders of the church,” Attavio VI said.

Cardenia snorted and looked at her father. “I’m not that stupid, either,” she said. “As far as the church is concerned I am serenely confident of my visions. The executive committee, too. I met with them today and told all of them I needed their faith. I thought Lord Teran’s head, at least, might explode from rage.”