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CAPTAIN

"Shots fired near the chamber, sir"

Captain Laurent Zai looked at his executive officer in surprise The battle had been going well Another of the Rix was dead, and the sole surviving enemy commando had been hounded almost to the outer wall of the palace complex She was clearly in retreat Zai had just ceased the railgun bombardment The second wave of un to secure the cru palace

"Rix weaponry?"

"Sounds friendly, sir According to the squad-level telenostics look dodgy, but if they&039;re reading true, he&039;s just expended his projectile ammo One casualty"

Zai swore Just what he needed: a run-a his rescue mission "Crash that idiot&039;s armor, Executive Officer"

"Done, sir," Hobbes said with a subtle flick of her wrist; she ured

Zai switched his voice to the et the last coeant Secure that council chaoes wrong"

CORPORAL

Marine Corporal Mirame Lao had just decided to lower the stasis field when the shooting outside started The railgun bo of the council chamber seemed stable One marine was stationed outside the chaes had crept out from under the shelter of the council table Lao had suspected the situation was secure, and wanted to check in with the Lynx

But then the ht dust rolling in through the cha of Rix blasters, but she could discern nothing through the heavy veil of the stasis field She kept the field up, positioning herself between the E to himself, a low murmur of disbelief as he probed the ultrasound ith instruers Some sort of tumor had afflicted the Empress&039;s symbiant, apparently What had the Rix done to her?

The sounds of the firefight ended after a few seconds A broken figure stuh the dust and into the council chamber An injured marine in battle arure shah the cracked visor She knew all the Lynx&039;s nizable The man&039;s left eye had exploded out of its socket, and the jaw on that side was slack with anesthetic It looked more like an insertion injury than blaster fire

The figure walked toward her, waving frantically A few steps away, the doll lifelessness of an armor crash, the dozens of servo all at once The marine sprawled helplessly on the floor

Lao listened It was silent outside

"Doctor?" she said "How is the E her or not," the doctor answered "Her synostics froht Admiral?"

The ad for the second it took her visor to coht of the chaun aied the wounded ain, the ht as well be protected

The marine rolled onto his back

Who was he? Lao wondered Even with his ruined face, she should be able to recognize him She knew every nia was

Morelow, battle-wary Tactical orders were still flying in secondary hearing: one more Rix commando remained

The wounded ed froled

Lao&039;s fingers shot for the generator&039;s controls again, raised the stasis field

"Damn!" the doctor swore "I lost the connection I need Lynx&039;s medical AI!"

"Sorry, Doctor," she said "But the situation is not secure"

Lao looked back at the woundedtoward the dead Rix co the deactivated arth

"Just lie there, soldier," she ordered In the few seconds the field had been down, Lao&039;s tactical display had been updated A host of friendly troops were converging on the council chamber Help was only ht up the Rix blaster, leveled at her chest

At this range, a blast from it would kill everyone inside the field

EXECUTIVE OFFICER

"The stasis field in the council chaain, sir"

"Good Contact them, dammit!"

Hobbes frantically tried to establish a link with Corporal Lao By the process of elimination, she had determined that Lao was the marine inside the stasis field A few seconds before, the shield had dropped, but then had popped up again, and there hadn&039;t been time to connect

"Lao!" she ordered on the ain The situation is secure"

The second wave ofmedevac unit from the capital&039;s hospital was in position on the palace roof

There was no response from Corporal Lao

"Dr Vecher," she tried Neither of the nostic feed from the doctor&039;s medical equip to face her captain "So"

He didn&039;t answer With a strange se chair and nodded his head,beneath his breath

It almost sounded like, "Of course"

Then the reports came in from below, fast and furious

The council cha with Dr Vecher, Initiate Barris, and two hostages, victienerator had been destroyed Apparently, a last Rix coun attack, and had been inside the stasis field In those close quarters, a single blaster shot had killed all six of them, even the Rixwoman herself

In a few es were

One was Admiral Fenton Pry, General Staff Officer of the Lesser Spinward Fleet, holder of the Order of John, the Victory Matrix, and a host of can medals from the Coreward Bands Succession, Moorehead, and the Varei Rebellion

The other was Child Empress Anastasia Vista Khaman, sister to His Imperial Majesty, the Risen Emperor

The rescue attempt had failed

Hobbes listened as Captain Zai recorded a short state He must have prepared it earlier--Hobbes realized--to save the lives of his crew

"The marines and naval personnel of the Lynx perforainst a perfidious enemy This mission was carried out with distinction, but its basic plan and direction were flawed The Error of Blood is mine and mine alone Captain Laurent Zai, His Majesty the Emperor&039;s Navy"

Then the captain turned and slowly left the bridge under the eyes of his stunned crew, sha, as if he were already a dead man ONE HUNDRED YEARS EARLIER

(IMPERIAL ABSOLUTE)

HOUSE

The house was seeded in the range of reat polar tundra The seed braked its fall with a long, black drogue chuteto a stop in the soft five-meter snows that shouldered the chosen peak At rest and buried in the snow, it lay silent for three hours, perfor It was a complex mechanism, this seed, and an undiscovered fla could doo problems and petty repairs

It was certainly in no hurry It had decades in which to grow

At length, the seed determined that it was in fine shape If there were any problems, they were of the sort that hid thenostic routine, a faulty internal sensor But that couldn&039;t be helped; it was one of the natural liood health, the seed took a long drink of the water that its drogue chute had been collecting The chute&039;s dark surface was splayed across the snow, absorbing sunlight anda thin layer of snow beneath it This water was carried to the seed by a slow capillary process, a few centiliters each ut quickly broke the water into hydrogen and oxygen, burning the for the latter It radiated the heat of this coue chute More snoas en burned

Finally, this cycle of energy production reached a critical point, and the seed was strong enough to ue chute, drawing it inward, and, as deliberately as a patient on a carefully measured diet, it consumed the clever and useful materials from which the chute was made

From these, as the heat of its labors caused the seed to sink deeper into the snow, it began toreeds whose uts processed and analyzed, whose anuses excreted subtlely changed h the mountain peak on which the seed found itself They mapped its structure, and determined that its steep but sound shoulders were as stable as a pyraales, construction tremors, even ten-thousand-year quakes The cylinders found veins of useful rah the peak, scrying its flaws and adjusting theraviton anneal site sound