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Chapter Twenty: Singh

Santiago Singh spent a very unpleasant few days dealing with the fallout from his newly announced security protocols for Medina Station One by one, every bureaucrat and functionary called hiatively impact morale and efficiency on the station However the conversations were phrased, what he heard in them was always the same The new rules will e will increase Are you sure ant to do this?

His responses, however he put them, were also of a piece: I don’t care if people are unhappy about the new rules, if they fail to do their jobs, they will be fired, sabotage is punishable by imprisonment or death, yes, I’m sure

In High Consul Duarte’s seistics, he’d pointed out that of all the methods by which one can exert political and economic control over another state, occupation by military force was the least effective and the most unstable The justification for occupation of Medina Station was that, as the checkpoint of all thirteen hundred colony worlds, it minimized the need for any further overnment move on quickly to economic trade and cultural pressure, which werecontrol And in fact, de to the people of Medina that the Laconian takeover would lead to better lives for all of theh could convince a station full of people bred for anarchy that imperial rule was desirable, the still-nascent colonies beyond the gates should be a piece of cake

He understood all of this well enough But it didn’t change the fact that he’d had to spend his afternoon explaining to stupid, angry people why atteovernor of the station carried consequences

When he cut the connection on what he hoped was the last of those co him coffee or tea or whatever else passed for a potable on that festering armpit of a station No one replied Because Kasik was dead and he hadn’t yet brought hi the dead man on the roster, some part of him still remained that history hadn’t erased

For a moment, the buzz of activity and conversation, irritation and confrontation that he’d cultivated since the incident slipped away, and he saw Kasik spitting raspberry jaue—

Singh lost a few seconds When he beca into his trash can From the state of the bin, he’d been at it for a while The s that only ended when his sto and a thin trickle of bile bit at the back of his throat Delayed shock Trauo through it

“I’m so sorry, Kasik,” he said, face suddenly covered in tears for a man whose first name he couldn’t even remember

The comm unit on his desk politely beeped “Leave h yelled at it

“Admiral Trejo is here for you, sir,” a carefully neutral voice replied

“Here?”

“In the security lobby, sir”

Singh cursed under his breath, soft but vicious He grabbed the liner out of his trash can and stuffed it into the recycler The air probably still sh as they would run to cut it

“Put hih answered, then used the sixty seconds to wash his face and rinse out his mouth Trejo had returned to Medina It could have s, but all of them meant he wanted to have a face-to-face conversation instead of trading lacial security apparatus that surrounded official co about sensitive issues