The Consuming Fire (The Interdependency #2)(59)

“And what is that?”

Grayland smiled at Korbijn. “Oh, I think you know well enough.”

“A coup.”

Grayland nodded again. “Or something close enough to it. Not just a clumsy assassination attempt like Nadashe made. Something large and elegant and irrefutable. So of course they’re going to need you for that. You, and the church. So, yes, they’re coming to sound you out for a deal.”

“And you want me to tell you who they are when they do,” Korbijn suggested.

To her amazement, Grayland shrugged at this. “You give me the name of the person who comes to you, and what then? I have them investigated or I have them arrested. You can be assured that Hibert Limbar is already investigating everyone and everything, including you and me, because that’s his job. If I have them arrested, then I only arrest one person. The rest of them will cut them off and burn any connection, like they did to Lord Teran. Meanwhile the rest of them continue doing what they do in the background. So, no, Archbishop. I don’t need you to tell me who comes to see you. Either I’ll know or it won’t matter.”

“Then what do you want me to do?”

Grayland smiled. “I want you to ask yourself what sort of church you want the Interdependent Church to be,” she said.

“I don’t understand.”

“Actually, I think you do,” Grayland said. “Or you will, when you think about it.”

“All right,” Korbijn said, dubiously.

Grayland laughed. “I’m not trying to be mysterious! I’m just saying that none of your predecessors in the last thousand years has been put on the spot like you have, because I had to go and sprout visions. But now that I have, you have to decide whether the church can still accommodate someone like me.”

“A prophet.”

“Oh, I don’t know if I would go that far,” Grayland said. “But yes.”

Korbijn smiled at this.

“If it can, then you’ll know what to do when you’re asked for your allegiance. And if it can’t, then I guess you’ll know what to do then, too. Either way, I apologize.”

“For what?”

“For being a real pain in your ass,” Grayland said. “Things would be much easier for you if I had just stuck to the script. I’m sorry.”

“Apology accepted,” Korbijn said. And then blurted out, “They would have come for you anyway, you know.”

Grayland had smiled again, and in remembering that, Korbijn knew why she had thought of Pritof’s sculpture at all: because in that moment, Rachela and Grayland had the same smile.





Chapter

16

“What sort of ship am I looking for?” Captain Laure said.

“A ship like this one,” Marce said. “Only larger.”

“That narrows it down,” Laure said.

“The Dalasyslans said that the ship didn’t have a ring on it,” Marce said. “So it’s not like a fiver or a tenner. It probably had push-field technology to mimic gravity like the Bransid does. But it was larger than us. The legend has the crew complement at two hundred, two hundred fifty.”

“So to reiterate,” Laure said. “We’re looking for a mythical ship that appeared three hundred years ago, without a ring, big enough to have a crew of two hundred.”

“It’s not mythical,” Marce said.

“It sounds mythical.”

“Dr. Gitsen did genetic typing of some of the Dalasyslans,” Marce said. “Do you know what she found?”

“Inbreeding?”

“No,” Marce said. “Well, yes. But not as much as you would think, considering.”

“That’s a relief,” Laure said.

“What Gitsen found was a genetic component that doesn’t conform to the historical genetic makeup of the Dalasyslans, and doesn’t much align with the DNA of people from the Interdependency.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that after over a thousand years, the humans of the Interdependency are distinct enough from the humans from Earth that we can tell the difference. We’re pretty good at typing people’s immediate ancestry. And a hefty part of these people’s ancestry isn’t from here. Or anywhere else in the Interdependency.”

“Not to be cruel, but have you seen these people?” Laure said. “They spent the last century at least in a ship that doesn’t offer them much protection from cosmic rays. Their DNA is probably more scrambled than most.”

“Gitsen controlled for that,” Marce said. “There’s still something else in there.”

“That sounds ominous.”

“It’s not ominous, but it is important. Someone else came here, Captain. Long after the Flow stream from the Interdependency collapsed. Long before we came. The Dalasyslans say the ship is still here somewhere.”

“They’ve probably scavenged it down to parts by now.”

Marce shook his head. “It’s apparently not convenient for scavenging. But even if it were, they said they wouldn’t because nothing on the ship would be compatible with their ships or habitats. And that tells you something, too.”

Laure shook her head. “I still think you’re having me chase a ghost.”