I startled. My set finished, and the results were dismal.
Citsa laughed. “I wonder what happened over there while you were daydreaming.”
I stood up, shaking.
She drummed her fingers on my counter. “I reported you to Otherworlder Authorities. Mr. Koch is investigating you two.”
Ryee stood by me but did not touch me. “We did nothing improper—”
“See my evidence.” She thought of me giving Ryee a kiss on the lips, and he staggered! “Your father will have a stroke when he sees this!” Ryee paled.
I walked to her and she backed. I kept moving closer until her legs struck her hard seat. “I tire of your incessant criticisms of my every move, my every gesture, even my appearance and my work offends you!
“I know about your plans to steal all my work and take credit for it. And Derees’ work. How much did you steal of Vonn’s and Tanda’s as well? Using Kajarian progs to break into the D’gharr Hub and the Yeff Hub?”
My mind opened and we all saw them. Ryee gasped and opened a prog screen. Be~saech and his father, Ge~saech frantically worked to close security gaps in progs written by the S’ai.
I showed them where each was, and no information passed to Eriganh.
His midnight blue eyes found me, and I shuddered. Kajarians have very small eyes, but telepathy stronger than a Zbbat.
My sweat hitting the floor sounded like heavy rain.
Citsa laughed. “Look at you! Your slopmach is getting the floor dirty. Did you wet yourself?”
“What makes you so filled with hate? Do you not care about saving our world? The 517 worlds of our Region?
“Oh, I’m just a reflection of you, Cis-adia. We are part of one another. I’m older and wiser, and it’s my duty to teach you—”
I shoved her into her chair. “You have nothing to teach me! Two long years you said, I am two years older than you. I know more than you. My work is more important than yours. You and Ossy said, I do more research than anyone in this complex. Once, I believed your lies. How many Zheien and Elshars did you hurt with your deceptions? Now, see the truth!”
Tanda pointed to a result on her final report. “Now we shall never use a breather again! All the nitrogen we need is in the Barrens! Every world can use this conversion prog!” Her happy face brought smiles all around. Except, Citsa.
Derees beamed as Pragate looked over his report. “Oh, wunderbar! We can use your chemical array mods so all our ships can use Adia’s new fuel! And Vonn’s new method will multiply uses so, it is like fueling once and refueling as ships travel, from dust!”
I trembled as I saw myself floating in air!
“Oh, Ay, this new fuel will need but a containment to release energy!” He caught me as I slipped my wrists out of the containment and brought the floating purple down. That moment, the warmth of his arms, the feel of his strong heartbeat as he caught me, I wanted it to last forever!
“Oh, you are in love with him, aren’t you?”
And, Citsa. With no discovery, sitting in the Council Chambers of Kleideu in Stuttgart. Leader Sau’s eyes turned black.
They brought her to stand beside him. And, Ossy. “He trained me! It was his idea to attack people—”
Leader Sau glared at her. “You were not trained by anyone. I have the signed statements of three different healers who said you tried to bribe them to say you were. They found no evidence of any slaver herb damage in your brain. No patterns to suggest training. Your penalty is death. Administer the herb.”
“No! No!” A healer put an herb in her mouth and hummed. She slumped. They waved her to stasis and her family cried. Ossy also got the death penalty.
I trembled. Did I wish that on her?
She stared at me. “Please! I’ll be good! Don’t let them kill me! I’ll be your slave!” The chair went over and she sobbed into my shoes.
I pulled her into my arms. “Don’t be scared. Work helps. Do good work. I will tell them it is good if you have something to show. We are friends.”
But, I kept hearing the testimonies of people at that trial. People who saw her kill people, or injure them. Tan Links, and her own sister, Lili Wilnes, whom he loves. She fired a weapon on them, then led them to Eicken Hospital. Healers could not bring up their records. Citsa claimed not to know who they were.
Vonn dropped a cylinder that bounced on the floor. My brother is alive? Can someone get him out of the hospital?
I will go, with a TS Inspector. Berto was landing his ship here, on Areon. He planned to get many people out of there! I showed him faces. Offered him trade because our pay came—
I have trade. Do not worry. We have evidence, thanks to you! Ryee offered to take them all. I think Areon will like to get rid of them. Healing is much trade.
We worked hard all through the afternoon. I wondered if they were able to do anything, but silence in the Link.
Derees waved his results to my display and I saw seven more catalysts for my work! Added them to my array for the next set.
I also studied some of the research Citsa found. One was of a rare mineral with explosive properties when exposed to certain frequencies of light. Light common from Sun1, here. A mineral I considered too expensive. But, Vonn authorized it.
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Ryee offered to try to trade for some, so he stood a little distance away and I watched him as I mixed.
His items appeared and disappeared in little holos across the bottom of his display. I had seen this many times, but the items were always different. Today, many bins of ore accumulated while he spoke with ten or fifteen Elshar traders at a time.
A purple man, a Thordes, argued with one of the Elshars. Two. Five joined in! But they came to some agreement and many of the bins vanished. A single cylinder appeared at the bottom. Many other Elshars and a few Xchou like Ry’nao waved fourfingered hands as their facial expressions changed.
Other holos appeared and vanished. The tallest Xchou waved and a huge bin of golden ore appeared at the side. More holos appeared and vanished in rapid succession. After, the huge bin also vanished and Ryee waved down his display.
Picked up the cylinder which floated and walked it to me.
“Oh.” My display filled with information about this mineral, where it came from, research others did on worlds in the Second. And, he gave me this one cylinder, which cost as much as a world.
I startled. “This tiny amount could trade for a world?” I feared to experiment with it!
“It is very rare, but I think your process could make a large amount of isotopes. Would you try? This is extremely compressed.”
I spent a few mins looking at what I could do with it. Made my decision. Vonn needed a more powerful catalyst for his next array, and so did Derees.
I put it into the array. When this set went into the irradiation chamber, it would affect a thousand diff substances! I hoped it would not vaporize.
But, I had to mix it first. I took a breath and brought up a 20,000x containment field. Checked Prog One. Ready.
With great care, I brought the foraquine near the amiritkaln-27 I made yesterday. Just to bring them near made the foraquine simmer as if liquid. Like amiritkaln, it was powder, but a brilliant azure like our ocean!
I let out my breath. Pulled the cylinders together in the tiny portal.
The foraquine expanded rapidly, and my prog filled purple cylinder after purple cylinder! Lined up the array on every counter in our lab! It slowed when cylinders stacked three high.
Vonn and Derees loaded half of them into their arrays immediately. I was still producing them.
They loaded three arrays of 5000 cylinders apiece into their gigantic processor. It refined the output into a thousand.
Derees’ array took the thousand and further refined it in the mixing chamber. Out came 250 cylinders. They glowed purple!
“Oh, this is wunderbar! Tanda, try this new compound in your experiment!”
She eagerly waved some of it into her array. A holo of waste rock on the Barrens showed rock that was part of a small mountain. A flash, and it was flat.
We oohed at it. And, nitrogen released into our atmosphere rose by a whole percentage point and a half!
Vonn fielded holos from excited scientists!
Then, Bram Koch appeared in holo.
Everyone went quiet. He was a powerful member. Ossy’s grandfather.
“Well, you seem to have something, Madame Weiss. How much nitrogen can your process do?”
She waved up graphs. Enough to release 5 more percent into the atmosphere, today! “I think we can stop using breathers now!”
The Council got very noisy. “How many can you do with what you have?”
“Two more.”
“I think you should save this—”
“Why not let her continue?” Leader Sau of the Kleideu Council stood. His blue eyes went black. He is Elshar? Dark curls framed a scowling face.
“It is very precious. We cannot risk waste—”
“Waste? Madame Weiss, how much was wasted, just then?”
She smiled. “None. All of the output was nitrogen. You can see there is no rubble.” Her holo zoomed in and the ground was glass.
Leader Sau glared at Koch. “You see it. And I verify with the Unified Hubs. This research is sound. We can now export nitrogen.”
“Then, let us vote. I say we save it. One cylinder of this cost the same as moving a world into our orbits. Should we not spend this trade elsewhere?”
But the rest of the Council voted for Tanda to use the two arrays. When they did, she ran the prog twice more, on the mountains on either side. A trader spoke with M’Naga.
Vonn waited for her to close her display and waved up her report.
His finger slid the square holo. A smile. “Mrs. Weiss, your report is excellent, as usual. Your part is finished and you may leave. Enjoy your days off! I am sending your report to Nitrogen Reclamation.”
Tanda smiled, big. “Thank you, Vonn! Derees, I hope all of you have magnificent discoveries. Adia! And, Ryee, thank you.” He waved festival pastries into her terminal and she giggled.
Always neat in her long dresses. If I was married, I would wear them anklelength, also. Citsa argued long for kneelength and said I dressed like an old woman of Kleideu.
I admired Tanda's courage, to wear lace on her hem. Surely many people criticized her as she walked to and from home. Her husband must be a good trader to afford it. She gave a curtsy.
Ryee bowed low. An Areonian bow.
Vonn and Derees rushed to shake her hand. “I am sure your husband looks forward to your free days—”
My father’s holo appeared. “I cannot authorize any.”
“Joleon, she earned them. Pragate said, until we had a breakthrough. The rest of us will work until we have ours, also.”
He frowned. “Until a new director is appointed, I lack authority to approve this.”
“Is this not standard procedure?”
He studied some holos. After some time, he nodded. “It is. Mrs. Weiss, enjoy your free days. But be careful. Some might be—unhappy—about this.” He looked at me, a frightened look.
She nodded. “I will be careful. All of you, I hope your work ends with new discoveries!”
Citsa glared at her as she gathered her things and left. Ryee assured me, her husband waited outside our door.
I felt happy for her, and such a discovery! No more breathers! Surely they have no excuse to use EDs, do they?
Ryee traded hard and got more cylinders of the substance. Then, Vonn set them off. His wave sent a cylinder across the room into the ED! It leaked green slime and fell to the floor!
“Oops!” Vonn stifled a laugh.
Simulants cleaned up. I expected Security to come, but after a few mins, I breathed more easily.
My work generated more of its isotopes. For such a rare substance, it had great output. We hoped that we could unlock more answers for the three of us.
Ryee waved up the analysis of my cube, that came from his Science Council. They studied it for a long time, but found many conflicting readings. It was like a colony with 2500 inhabitants.
Did they somehow find a reflection of Ye~ in it?
Ne. My psi interface detected minds. They are probably ne inside it, but nearby. Be careful, Ay.
Minds?
She is a terminal, but ne of our level. Ry’nao tells me he will explain it to you when you meet.
I nodded and tried not to think!
As the day went on, research that Citsa was supposed to find did not materialize. Work will not save her, I reminded myself.
Citsa kept busy all afternoon. Vonn inspected and she did find a little helpful research for all of us. Not much for a day.
Ryee and I mixed many sets. Derees filled his array time after time and so did Vonn. I think we did more work in this 10th day than in all the others!