The Consuming Fire (The Interdependency #2)(35)



Cardenia looked up at Marce, confused. “Is this accurate?”

“Well,” Marce began.

“Because if this is accurate, then I have a whole lot of questions for you, Lord Marce. Not all of them friendly. I’ve risked a whole lot on your predictions being correct.”

Marce held up a hand, and then pointed at Roynold. “Ask her what ‘eventually’ means in this context.”

Cardenia directed her attention to Roynold. “And what does ‘eventually’ mean in this context, Dr. Roynold?”

“Somewhere between five thousand and eight thousand years from now,” Roynold said.

Cardenia looked back at Marce, confused.

“Dad and I were right,” Marce said. “The Flow streams as we know them are going to collapse, soon, and go away for a very long time. Enough time to bring about the effective end of civilization if we don’t act.” He pointed again at Roynold. “She was also right—the Flow streams are eventually likely to reestablish themselves in this part of space, in a different configuration than they are in now. She was just off on the timescale.”

“No one to check my math,” Roynold said.

“And we both missed something else, until we had access to each other’s work,” Marce continued. “The evanescence, I mean. It doesn’t change the fact the Flow streams are collapsing. It doesn’t change that the Interdependency is threatened. But it might buy us all a little more time to deal with it.”

“How so?”

“You asked if new Flow streams will open up where there weren’t ones before,” Marce said. “That’s correct, and some will. But there’s another effect, too.”

“Collapsed ones will open back up again,” Roynold said. “Sometimes. Not for very long.”

“But long enough to send ships through,” Marce said.

“Maybe,” Roynold said. “Depends.”

“And bring them back again,” Marce said.

“Again, maybe and depends,” Roynold said.

“Which brings us to the next thing.” Marce leaned forward. “And this is a big thing.”

“It’s really big,” Roynold said.

“What?” Cardenia asked, switching her view between the two of them. “What is it?”

“Hatide predicted a previously closed Flow stream would be opening up imminently. After the Terhathum stream closed, I tasked one our drones to go to where this previously closed Flow shoal used to be.”

“And?” Cardenia said.

“It went through,” Roynold said. “The Flow stream has opened up again. And the one coming back, too. Both of them back in business.”

“Not for long,” Marce warned.

“No,” Roynold agreed. “They’re both going to collapse again. The outgoing stream in about a year. The incoming stream much sooner than that. Say three months.”

“Why the difference?” Cardenia asked.

“It’s like I told you when I first met you,” Marce said. “The incoming and outgoing streams aren’t actually related. And there’s this.” He nodded over to Roynold.

“The incoming stream has been open for almost five years,” Roynold said.

Cardenia blinked at this. “How is that possible?”

“The Flow doesn’t do what it does on our schedule,” Roynold said. “The current shift has been happening for decades, maybe even centuries.”

“No,” Cardenia said, slightly annoyed. “I mean how did we miss this open Flow shoal hanging out in Hub space?”

Roynold shrugged. “You weren’t looking for it. Nothing was coming out of it. And the outgoing Flow shoal had collapsed so long ago, probably no one has thought about it for centuries.”

“Except maybe for you,” Marce said, to Cardenia.

Who threw up her hands, exasperated. “Could you please stop being mysterious, and just tell me, already?”

“It’s Dalasysla,” Marce said. “The lost star system of the Interdependency. And the reason your namesake was assassinated.”

Cardenia was stunned silent by this.

“Ask her,” Roynold said, eventually, to Marce.

“Ask me what?” Cardenia said, also looking to Marce.

“We think we should go,” Marce said. “To Dalasysla.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s the system we lost,” Marce said. “What happened there could happen to every other system in the Interdependency. We need to go and find out what we can about how everything broke down, so we can learn how to avoid their mistakes.”

“And we need to do it soon,” Roynold said. “Before the incoming stream collapses again.”

“Hatide’s right. We need a ship. And we need it soon.”

“And you would want to go on the ship,” Cardenia said.

“Of course,” Marce said, and smiled. “It’ll be the most important scientific expedition in hundreds of years. I wouldn’t want to miss it.” He looked over to Roynold. “Neither of us would.”

*

It was close to midnight before Cardenia finally said fuck it to herself and sent for Marce Claremont.

“What sort of scientists are you going to need for this expedition?” she asked, when he appeared, hastily, in her apartments. His own apartment was in the staff wing of the palace, some distance away. Cardenia knew Marce had his own money—his father had sent him to Hub with a substantial portion of his family’s wealth in a personal data vault—but Marce Claremont was apparently happy in what was essentially a studio apartment with a lavatory attached. He had walked the several minutes from his apartment to hers, stopping through layers of security on the way. The two of them stood, somewhat awkwardly, in her drawing room a bit of a distance apart.

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