Aurora

by Mark W. Tiedemann

  Hofton waited in the lobby, alone.

  'Ambassador Burgess," he said, bowing slightly.

  "Hofton. Is everything ready-~`

  "Everything that can be." He gestured toward the doors. "I have a limousine waiting."

  Ariel felt a moment of tension wrap around her chest as she walked out of the embassy. She took several deep breaths; her thighs and upper arms tingled as she entered the limo. Hofton climbed in beside her The near-vertigo faded, unrealized, as the transport pulled away.

  "Derec?' she asked

  "He'll be boarding within a few hours. I've cleared a direct shuttle for you, bypassing Kopernik altogether. Your personal items have already shipped up."

  "I nearly forgot. Derec wanted me to ask you to try to get Rana's visa-~'

  "I already took care of that. Some time ago, in fact. Ms. Duvan left for Aurora nearly eight days ago."

  "OIL Very good, Hofton." Ariel frowned- If Rana had already departed, why would Derec have asked about her visa? She shrugged. It had probably slipped his mind. Considering the pressure he was under-they were all under-he'd probably immersed himself in work and missed Rana's departure.

  They rode on in silence for a time. As Union Station came into view at the end of the long thoroughfare that connected it to the ancient Mall District, Ariel reached across the seat and

  grasped Hofton's hand, not looking at him. He tensed but did not pull away.

  "You're wonderful, Hofton. I'll miss you."

  She glanced over and saw him reddening, his eyes resolutely forward Finally, as the limo pulled onto the apron of the passenger entrance, he nodded once, slowly, and said, "I have tried to earn your respect. You're one of the few people I've known whose respect I craved. Thank you."

  Then he was out of the limousine, waiting for her.

  When they entered Union Station, Ariel stopped. A huge crowd filled the cavernous expanse, all being held back by a police line. She recognized the angry, almost hateful timbre of the mob, bubbling with barely restrained. resentment

  "Hofton."

  "I had no idea," he said. "I've already cleared you through Customs."

  "We don't run, Hofton. No matter what, we dont run."

  "Walking a bit faster than usual would not be a bad idea, though."

  'Agreed."

  She took the van by a pace and walked along the concourse provided by the police line. Halfway down its length~ she looked over at the throng.

  No one seemed to be paying her any attention. She slowed

  'Ariet-2' Hofton urged

  "No, wait"

  Then she saw a couple of banners.

  FLESH NOT STEEL, FAITH NOT TREASON

  ABOLISH IMMUNITY FOR TRAITORS

  PIUSON NOT POSITION' TRY, CONVICT, AND JAIL ELITON

  "Eliton"

  "Please, Ariel."

  She continued on.

  Suddenly, a few people focused on her.

  "Spacer"

  "Auroran"

  "tinhead advisor"

  "Burgese"

  Hofton placed a hand at her back and gently urged her forward. They reached the gate to the shuttles. Hofton leaned past her and handed a card to the attendant

  "Yes, Ambassador," the woman said. "Go right through-"

  Ariel hesitated. 'What is this?' she asked, gesturing at the crowd.

  "Clar Eliton is supposed to be coming through here today," the attendant said flatly, as if that explained everything.

  "I see," Ariel said. "Thank you."

  She walked up the ramp.

  I no longer trust the authorities to protect someone like yourself," Hofton said-

  "Forgive me if I exceeded my position."

  "No, that's fine. Eliton is coming through here?'

  "I understand he's being shipped out. He's been given an appointment. The Ten-an government wants him offworld

  "I haven't been keeping track. I didn't realize he was so ... controversial."

  "I think 'hate & is the word you want."

  Ariel grunted. "I suppose there isn't much worse than breaking a trust."

  "Oh, I think so. Breaking a trust that gets people killed.

  Ariel looked back at Hofton, but as usual his face was stonily unreadable. Just before she looked away, though he cocked one eyebrow at her.

  At the head of the passageway a small car waited- Hofton tapped a code into the little vehicle's processor. "Have a safe trip, Ambassador."

  "Don't overstay your welcome here."

  "I'm already timing my departure. As soon as Ambassador Setaris is done with me, I think I'll be following you."

  "I'll look forward to that."

  "0 12, by the w ay." He pulled a disk from his jacket pocket. 'A partial analysis of the grass you asked me to have assayed. There are some peculiarities, but apparently it's not much more than some rare Terran grasses. I'll continue having it analyzed if you like, there may be something more to those peculiarities. Lack of time, though--2'

  'Thank you. I understand-" She took the disk and tucked it into her own jacket "See you on Aurora, Hofton."

  He bowed again.

  Ariel stepped into the car and sat down. A canopy snapped into place and the car started up its magnetic track. She strained to keep Hofton in sight as long as she could

  Coren found messages waiting in his office at DyNan headquarters when he returned from the funeral. One was a note from Ariel. He left it unopened, thinking he knew what it said and not wanting to deal with it just now. The second was from Inspector Capel, inviting him to visit his offices sooner rather than later. A third was from Lio Top, one of Rega's lawyers and his former campaign manager during his run for the senate. The last two got attention first: Willis Jay, the biologist he had given the grass samples to, and Shola Bran, current security supervisor.

  He tapped Shola's code. "You wanted to see me?'

  "Boss, 1--2' The voice-only comm frustrated Lanra sometimes; he could not see faces, only guess from vocal inflection the state of mind of the person on the other end of the link. He had necessarily gotten fairly good at it-like now, lie heard self-consciousness and embarrassment, hesitancy--but he never felt certain of his judgment.

  "Come see me," he said quickly, and broke the link. He tapped Jay then. "You have something for me, Doctor?'

  "You should drop things off for me to do more often,, Mr. Lanra," Jay said- "I haven't seen anything quite so interesting in a long time. If you don't mind, I'd like you to come down to see this.,,

  "Give me an hour."

  Shola rapped at his door and he waved her in. She approached his desk with visible reluctance.

  "Sit," he said, then waited till she did

  "Boss, I don't know how-I mean-2'

  'What security arrangements did Rega request in the last couple of months-7"

  'That's just the problem. He refused security. He said now that he no longer threatened anyone in government, he didn't need it"

  Coren considered. "Well, that's not unlike him."

  "But you always knew when to listen to him and when to ignore him. I didn't know how to handle that"

  "Rega never permitted personal surveillance in his residence. That was always a standing policy."

  'And you always abided by that?'

  'Absolutely. So if you've been beating yourself up because you think you should have done something, stop. Rega was stubborn, obdurately independent, and the most private person I ever knew. His company, his rules. What do you think you should have done?'

  I don't know, but it's been on my mind. I don't know how to shake it."

  "You shake it. You never forget it, but you do your job. You figure out what happened and how to prevent it from ever happening again. You find out who did it"

  Her eyes narrowed sharply. "Who did-what?'

  "Rega was murdered. You didn't think that was natural, did

  YOUY'

  "No, but---2'

  "What have you been doing to follow up?'

  "We did a survey of
his apartments, went through. his personal transaction togs to find possible witnesses or perpetrators. I've started talking to all employees who had any contact with him since he ended his election bid- The usual."

  "Good- Then your job right now is to keep me posted on your progress.

  "You are back, then?'

  "I am most definitely back, and we will find out who did this." He watched her for several seconds while she thought over what he had said. "Okay?'

  "Yes." She stood- `Thanks."

  "If it helps any, there probably wasn't anything I could have done, either. You're not at fault."

  She managed a forced smile before she left. Coren leaned forward and began entering instructions into his desk system. In seconds he discovered that his oversight program was still in place. He directed it to copy Shola's files extending back to the day Coren had quit Rega Looms, then to identify and copy the related files of other operatives working with her on Rega's death. That would take some time to get around Shola's private safeguards.

  He opened Lio Top's message, then: "Coren, I need to speak to you regarding Rega's last will and testament Call me earliest, please."

  "What will?' he said caustically. His daughter dead, Rega Looms had no other family, and damn few people Coren could think of would merit any posthumous aid from him. Maybe he intended to set up a board of directors or a trust or a grant program

  "Later," he snapped out loud, and left the office.

  He made his way back to the organics tab.

  An assistant led him to Jay's private office, adjacent to his laboratory. Odd, almost plastic smelts permeated the air, undercut occasionally by something more pungently organic.

  "Oh~ good," Jay said when he saw Coren. He stood and came around his desk, gesturing casually for Coren to follow.

  The tab proper was a long room divided by several worktables, each bearing a collection of devices only a few of which Coren recognized

  "That grass has turned out to be a very interesting subject," Jay said, leading Coren to the last worktable. "Do you know much about organic biology, horticulture, gardening ... ?'

  "Sorry, no."

  I would be surprised if you did- Most Terrans know next to nothing about organic anything." He sighed wearily and tapped a screen on the table. "Here."

  Coren stepped around the table to stand beside Jay. On the screen he saw a complex molecule, the various components color-coded in blues, reds, and bright oranges. One set, though, was a hard, metallic grey.

  'This is the chlorophyll molecule I extracted from the sample. Normally, in plant cell biology, you'll find magnesium here as a reactive element-the chloroplast, the part that contains this is like our own hemoglobin, you know what that is? Good. Instead of iron, like we use, plants use magnesium." Jay pointed at the gray sections. 'This is where the magnesium ought to be, bonded to the nitrogen atom."

  Coren waited. Jay seemed to be contemplating the image on the screen. 'And what do we have instead?' Coren prompted

  "Beryllium. It still promotes photosynthesis, but I'm having a hard time explaining why beryllium is here instead of just good old-fashioned Mg. There is magnesium present, but it's bonding to a complex silicate instead of nitrogen. It's acting as a connector, bridging between the silicate and the chloroplast The silicate is causing some odd reactions in the RNA, too, which may be why there's beryllium. If so, the RNA is acting atypically, but..."

  "Colloquial translation?'

  "Well, this grass is partly made of glass, to put it simply. There's a variety of silicate compounds falling out of some of the internal interactions, but a few organic anomalies, like cyanophosphates and so forth I can't say that they actually do anything-it may be that this is all byproduct"

  "meaning?"

  "Well, when you see traces of peculiar inorganic ions in constructs like this, its usually an indication that a secondary process is at work, something external."

  "Silicate. Glass. What might that indicate?'

  "Well ... something we played around with a while back, but Rega canceled all the projects. I'm not sure what all the specifics were, but it had to do with terraforming."

  Coren blinked- 'As in reshaping environments?'

  "Exactly. Part of the Settler program."

  "DyNan was involved in that?'

  "Long time ago and not very deeply. This reminded me of some of it, though- But I'm not sure yet. I wanted to show you what I had so far."

  "What about the grass itself?'

  "Oh~ it's a variety of Terran grass ... um He went to another screen and read briefly. "Eragrostis curvula ... that's the closest form I came up with. Pretty much extinct in the wild, we keep a lot of it in greenhouses and in data storage. Originally indigenous to continental Africa."

  'Was it exported?'

  "I could find out It's a hardy species. Its possible your sample is a variation redesigned for a nonTerran environment"

  "Keep working on it, would you?' Coren asked. "I'd like to know more about it."

  "It's more interesting than anything else I've been doing lately.,,

  "Which is?'

  "Nothing. I think Rega was planning to shut the department down. Six months ago the last project I had was canceled."

  "What was it?"

  "Recombinant fluorine extraction. We were looking for a way to increase hydraulic pressure in some of our heavy lift waldoes. The idea---~'

  Coren held up a hand- 'Another time. Thanks."

  Jay flashed a crooked grin. "I'm very popular at dinner parties, too, for my scintillating conversational topics."

  Coren laughed and left the tab, more puzzled now than before he had entered

  "Silicates," he muttered.

  Lio Top kept offices outside the DyNan compound- Her company offices were neatly-appointed comfortable, ideal for casual meetings, but she never, as far as Coren knew, did any work in them.

  He took the fast walkway beyond DyNan into the posh caf6 district just north of the compound. He stepped off in a large circular space, its levels tiered and receding, giving it the look of an amphitheater. Statues alternated with holographic abstract displays around the rim of the plaza. Coren breathed in the rich

  mix of smells from several restaurants as he ascended stairs to the fourth tier.

  Lio Top's office sprawled behind a transparent wall that gave her a view of the entire circle. Soft apricot-tinged light filled the low-ceilinged interior.

  "Coren, good," she called from behind a large, glass-topped desk. She stood and came to greet him. 'Thanks for coming so fast. Can I get you a drink?'

  "Sure. Nava-~`

  Lio raised an eyebrow and went to her bar.

  "Your message was a bit cryptic," Coren said- "What do I have to do with Rega's will?'

  'As it turns out," Lio said, pouring a tall glass of turquoise liquid, "more than I would have guessed. No living relatives anymore, he had to do something. Knowing Rega, I expected the whole thing to go to his church."

  "It isn't?'

  She handed him the glass. "That would be telling. You and everyone else will have to wait for the official reading, day after topminnow. But I did have instructions outside of the will concerning you." She retimed to her desk and fetched a disk, which she pressed into his free hand- "There."

  "What is it?'

  I have no idea. My instructions were to, and I quote, 'put this directly into Coren's hand the minute you see him in the event of my demise.' I've done that I have no knowledge of its contents."

  Goren looked over at the desk. "Shouldn't you have kept this in a safe or something?'

  "I did, until you sent word that you were coming over. I kept it in the secure pouch you gave me. That thing is a pain to open.

  Coren smiled appreciatively. "You're his lawyer and you didn't look?'

  "I'm not his primary attorney," she protested- "I just ran his senate campaign and took care of his public relations issues. Sil Vanderbo is still principle attorney, and he'd have a nervous breakdown if
he'd known about that. If I'd pried and looked at it and he had found out before I handed it over to you, he'd have had my license."

  "I think you underestimate your position with Rega. He would never have trusted you to manage his campaign if you were just one of the stable."

  "Ob, I don't underestimate myself, don't you worry about that I think I was probably his third or fourth most trusted counsel. Pretty high up, considering he employed nearly two-hundred-fifty attorneys. But I never held any illusions about my limits, either, and as long as he kept Sil on retainer I knew I'd never get any higher up the ladder."