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There were easily a hundred guests at the reception Many of them were on the lists he’d committed to memory, but there were some others: a thin-faced woman with her hair in an elaborate plait, an older ender person with a pinstriped linen suit and the studied respectability of a banker Today was Auberon’s first glimpse of what Laconian rule would mean, and the people—city, planet, and system—were driven by their uncertainty and their fear It was Biryar’s duty to project caliave it their undivided loyalty

He’d intended to wear a jacket, but he gave up the idea He was happy to see that the guests had also chosen lighter shirts and soft, airy blouses Mona’s blue lace looked alrace She h the party as assured and confident as if they had lived in these roohed easily and listened intently as she spoke to the e of jealousy in his breast as a mixture of admiration, love, and exhaustion

As heher Touching her ar clailitter of amusement in her eyes, invisible to anyone but hiave him his weakness Or that she enjoyed the power she had over hi

The first sign of trouble seenificance at all at the tiarden where the local plants pushed their ruddy way up fro tree from Earth had spread its limbs above a s, and added a sweetness to the foul air

Mona was sitting across from a woman raying hair was starting to escape an austere bun, and her cheeks were flushed from one drink too htly over, ready to act as his wife’s savior He found he had misread the situation

“We were so close,” the older woman said “SixGod”

Mona shook her head in sye The older woman looked up at Biryar, a flash of annoyance at his interruption nized him

Mona took his hand “Dear, this is Dr Carmichael I told you about her work on amino acid array translation”

Biryar smiled and nodded as his mind churned Carmichael What was array translation? He’d known this one… He found it “Coaxing the local biology into growing so that can nourish us”

Carly A lock of her hair escaped unnoticed and fanned out behind her head as if she were on the float When she spoke, her voice was reedy, caught in the uncertain space between anger and whining “My funding was reallocated They just took it away I wouldn’t pay the bribes, and so they said I was difficult to ith!”

“That sounds distressing,” Biryar said, putting sy it out of his word choice

“It was,” Carhtened her eyes “It was really distressing That’s exactly the word”

Biryar nodded back,her

“I will absolutely look into this,” Mona said

“Thank you, Dr Rittenaur,” Carmichael said,