L'Gem

by Sharon L Reddy

  Chapter Twenty-six

  People began to arrive for the last day of fun long before the snow ended. The slopes would need grooming before closing ceremonies began in Snowdale at thirteen.

  The ceremonies were scheduled very approximately after that. One of the Carnival officials told Planet Sports Network the object was to "get the whole show done before dusk in Frostlea," and finishing early was better than finishing late. When asked if Snowdale "minded" always being first, she said most of the people moved inside to watch shows in the other towns and the restaurant and bar owners did not complain. They expected more to run for Frostlea than usual that year, but the best view would still be through Jace's cam on a monitor.

  Snowdale's closing ceremony opened and ended on schedule. Alpinair's started four minutes early, but they used those and two more. The children's ski group took a little more time to get ready than expected due to "a shy attack," then another group had a slight equipment problem.

  Jace made up lost time and they got to White Peak two minutes early. Their show finished eight minutes ahead of schedule. From skiers on the slopes, to the children's chorus on the stage, everyone took a bit less on and off time than allowed. Bance Jace and Silky got to Frostlea ten minutes early, but it took five of it to get through to the ski cabin to park. No one got in the way. It just wasn't safe to go faster.

  Bance drove and talked and Jason recorded the jam as they passed through it. They had a crowd estimate of over double the largest for any previous event in Frostlea. The total crowd for the four towns was almost two-thirds of the population of the region, and half were in Frostlea, wearing teal and gold.

  As they were setting up, someone shouted, "We are Teal Magic!" The final thunderous response rolled down the valley and Avalanche Mountain lived up to its name. Jace got the cam on it and the crowd roared its approval. The first thing the mayor of Frostlea said was that had worked better than the concussion shells they usually used, and the town appreciated the money saved. The crowd laughed and cheered, then he introduced the first speaker, their congressional representative.

  "We know why we're all here today. We just shouted it loud enough they heard it in White Peak, Alpinair and Snowdale and we're sure they added their cheers to ours. They heard us in Teal Valley, Ambertown, Dawn Ridge and Mount Fortress, and cheered with us. We have a university. It's everything we dreamed and more than we could have imagined. It came into existence in the tide of freedom that rose on this world we now call our Liberty Gem. I'm going to quit talking and insert something in the schedule. Fems and Gens, I've asked the Laughing Peak Secondary Octet to sing the song the eighty-two students in their school have written. Come up here, kids."

  "We had planned to sing this for Kail much more privately."

  "We've been working on a school song for BNU."

  "It's, of course, titled The Teal and Gold. Ready?"

  "Hmmm..."

  "In a wide teal valley, in the high northwestern range, we build our golden dreams of tomorrow. Bressler Northwest University, our hearts abide with you. For our life's success, we shall always bless, our beloved BNU."

  "In a wide teal valley…"

  "In the high northwestern range…"

  "We build our golden dreams of tomorrow."

  "No chill of winter…"

  "Can touch our souls."

  "They hold forever summer of teal and gold."

  "Bressler Northwest University, our hearts abide with you. For our life's success, we shall always bless, our beloved BNU."

  "In a wide teal valley..."

  "In a wide teal valley..."

  "In the high northwestern range..."

  "We build... our golden dreams... of tomorrow..."

  Larry began to sing. Kail joined and the octet and hundreds followed. Everyone was singing before they reached the chorus. Silky told Bance and Jace the mike was "down" and they sang. All over the region in homes, restaurants, bars, and in the ski towns around big monitors, the people stood and sang The Teal and Gold.

  People didn't stumble over the words or the phrasing. They didn't lose the melody. The song was simple and beautiful, a living work of art created by their children. When the song ended, one of the boys in the octet shouted, "We are Teal Magic!"

  Silky worked through the applause and the rep's thanks. He found a fanfare that was in the right key and ended in a perfect fade, edited it to the right length, he hoped, kissed his wyvern and asked it to please help, then he briefed Bance and Jace.

  Bance whooped and Jace told him to kiss their lucky wyvern for them to. Silky gave it two more kisses and promised it another just before they began, then caught up with the image Jace was giving him, and what Kail was saying.

  "…problem with this ski suit is the sleeve doesn't blot tears well. We have a school song. The children, for whom the university was built, wrote it, and we all chose it. It was the only way that was appropriate, because we all built it. Every one of us knows we've been there in spirit everyday, building our university but there's something you don't know about it. Prepare yourselves for a shock. Are you ready? It will be done in fifteen days!!"

  The campus construction crew burst into laughter at the silence and Jace caught the stunned look on faces. He found Tatton Tellerlock, laughing, just as the crowd burst into cheers. The crew shouted, "We are Teal Magic!" in unison and the crowd responded in chorus.

  The show began as the final response rolled between the mountains, down the valley. By the time the next-to-last started, everyone knew there should be just enough time for the flag parade to be in the sunlight.

  Silky kissed his wyvern and keyed the music just as Dandy and China started down the slope. Bance identified each person and the pertinents of the town, whose flags they bore. Jace moved the image from the face of the hill to traverse through its wide upper curve to the top. The first five started down as the fanfare began the second time and Silky whooped. It was perfect so far. Then Bance finished talking as Dandy and China came off the curve and Silky reminded himself to breathe.

  They dropped out of view behind "the hump" as the fanfare began to fade, and he softly counted. The banner rose into view at the top of the slope as Larry sang, "In a wide" and began down as Kail led others in "teal valley." He told their little wyvern it had obviously gotten some big help and said, "Thank You."

  Jace kept the cam on the face of the hill and Bance didn't talk. Silky said his mike was off and he did as most were, softly sang again. Jace and Silky both sang too. The five crested the hump and Silky whispered it was perfect, and he'd turn Bance's mike on when the song ended. The five skiers 'crossed the finish,' when the song ended. Bance counted three seconds.

  "Bance Neardon, Channel Forty-eight, in Frostlea, at the closing ceremony of the Winter Carnival, that will be forever remembered as The Teal and Gold. We are Teal Magic!"

  "Magic Teal! Magic Swords! Go!"

  Silky whooped as Jace yelled the response with the crowd. Bance always knew how to end a segment. He slowly faded the cheering after the last response, leapt out of his chair, whooped and danced. No one needed to edit the segment for length. It was perfect, perfect, perfect. From the top, from the curve and from the banner coming over the hump, it was perfect segment length. He shouted his thanks to the sky and danced with their lucky wyvern. The world had been watching and they'd been blessed with a masterpiece.

  "Answer comm."

  "Damn!"

  "Boss, something loves BNU, and us."

  "There's no doubt of that at all. Silky, that was the most beautiful piece of news coverage, and live broadcast art, I have ever seen. I admit bias, but I had tears running and was singing, and you know I don't sing. If that segment doesn't win a Broadcast Institute Award, it's fixed."

  "Uh…"

  "I was sure that hadn't occurred to you. We're being flooded with rebroadcast requests. If there's a station that covers news on this planet that doesn't broadca
st that tonight, or morning, or both, people will look for one that does, and they all know you did it on the scene, live."

  "Now I know how Nev, Knight and Blade felt, plus."

  "A lot more noticed award. You three will go if nominated."

  "I can't get a babysitter?"

  "No one would believe that one, and you should take him along, anyway."

  "Her."

  "For sure?"

  "Yes, Essa decided to confirm my feeling, finally. I told her I was sure, everyone knew it, and somebody at the clinic would be blamed for blabbing. She said, "Girl," and I got all the things I bought for a baby girl out of the car. Bance said we've got a friendly mob headed this way, and a mob of friends moving fast to get here first."

  "Get behind Knight, Nev and Blade. Everyone in that mob knows who put it together."

  "I sometimes miss the days of 'and our editor is in there,' but I wouldn't go back."

  "Silky! Let's go!"

  "Yipe, Boss. Comm out."

  "Asking if he liked it seems superfluous."

  "His greeting was, 'Damn,' Bance. We're running for the cabin?"

  "The viewroom seemed great, until I had this memory of a siege scene in a costume drama."

  "Get in Stats' transport!"

  "What?!"

  "We'll never get you out of here if we wait!"

  "I thought they liked it, Case."

  "They loved it, Silky. We're moving you to the campus crew tent. Your wives are already on the way."

  "I was not expecting this."

  "We'll get the mobile unit out if you're not in it, Bance. Otherwise, there will be so many who want to tell you how you made them feel, it'll snarl things hopelessly, and the transports won't get through to load."

  "Oh, now it makes sense. The cabin is too close to loading."

  "Yes, you not there or in the mobile will break this apart reasonably. It's well-planned, but your incredible, fantastic, uplifting and everything else broadcast will, not could, do it in. If we yell we got you out to prevent an incurable traffic jam, people will laugh, agree it was a good idea, and tell you how much it meant to them in much smaller groups."

  "In and duck."

  "I don't think I like fame, Stats."

  "I understand that well, Jace."

  "Tinler's got a break in traffic set up, but it's timed close!"

  "Yipe!"

  "It's real close timed or Case wouldn't have boosted the mobile unit, Silky."

  "I know, Stats, but I'm only used to moving that fast sitting down."

  "Down, Silky!"

  "Yes, Bance. You put me on cam so everyone recognizes me."

  "I had to, Silky. You were news."

  "Answer mobile comm."

  "We got Ronnie, Essa and Day in. He did not expect to be noticed among all the other guys in fan ski suits. Until several people said, 'Day, please tell Jace.' He's still surprised."

  "He has no idea how recognizable he is, Dawn."

  "I don't think he realizes how often he's left of center in crowd scenes either, Jace."

  "Oops. I didn't realize I was doing it that much."

  "He doesn't realize he's usually where crowds are thickest, either."

  "Jace, Hammison would have said something if it wasn't because that's where they're thickest, even if Silky didn't notice it first."

  "I do notice, Bance, but he's where the most crowd action is. Jace finds it faster now."

  "My sweet social butterfly. How are the others doing on becoming non-traffic-snarls, Dawn?"

  "Eight just got on the lift. The big slope will be open long enough for one run, then they'll move to intermediate under lights a little while. Kail and Larry are staying south side of the grandstand, so well away from the road. Roma, Evva, Lillen and Kendra are here. Kady and Reesa blended into a bunch of girls headed for Votto's for munches. Tatton was the other who didn't expect to be a traffic problem. Carler, Milla and Brinda pulled him and his wife out of a widening snarl and up to the lodge suite. We've got China in. Where are you now?"

  "Down! Dawn, ask, 'Stats, where are you,' next time, please. I had three heads bob up to look. We just made our traffic break. Tendler deserves an award. A hole 'just happened' right in front of me."

  "Drand told Lakeson you made it. She'll try to get you a break on the left into here."

  "That dome can't be clear either."

  "No, but if you keep right, you get around to a spot you can cross, I think. No one here is going to leave until after dinner. Two transports in and two more close, big dinner party. They've got four keepers to empty, and I think they filled them this morning, when Kail asked to announce. Be back. Comm out."

  "Answer mobile comm."

  "Stats, I'm parked in the cabin drive exit, waving to crowds who look disappointed it's me. Working well. They're moving right along to the transport stops. Here come the first three, six, nine. The road just became one-way. I've got my feet up on the console, obviously no hurry, or polite transport drivers would stop for me."

  "They know how many there are. Where are you taking the unit?"

  "Your spot in the garage when this thins more. Blade said, 'Obvious don't need to hurry. Move later,' and shut the door. He's not happy she's got to leave tonight."

  "I think it's the first time he's ever had to work not to mope. Danny said he's got a feeling she won't come back alone."

  "Ow. We're all just buddies but Blade and Jilli and we're worried?"

  "He knows he has his lifelong loves, and she knows what that ruby means to him, Case. Yes."

  "Comm connect Knight. After she leaves, don't work on it. Go ahead and get furious-possessive. Comm out."

  "Thank you, Case."

  "You're welcome, Stats. You know, IS limited me even more than I thought. I couldn't have imagined 'needing' three comms. Comm out."

  Deely agreed with Case. There were times jealous was appropriate. Knight interrupted her list of things she needed to get back to after Winter Carnival, with a kiss. Nev noticed Knight was better and relaxed. So did Danny. Dandy noticed she did and touched the little diamond in her ear. She smiled, pulled her ear cover down and said, "And nights." He called Milla and asked if he could borrow sheets and pillows for a night or two. He knew his house still had at least one bed. He yelled he needed a ride car shopping, as they made their last run of Winter Carnival down the big slope.

  Blade and Jilli didn't go back up to the intermediate slope to ski awhile under the lights. They went to the cabin. They didn't have much time left to be together. She was packed, but not ready to leave. She was going to wear her ski suit home, even though she was traveling into summer. It would be very early morning there, and she had to work that day, but she told them she was wearing her "teal and gold Winter Carnival back, not home." A little over an hour later, they loaded her bags in the Bolt.

  She had many friends to whom to say farewell. The campus crew would be gone when she returned. She also had many who wouldn't be, and some to "commiserate with," who also had to "go back."

  Dinner wasn't really festive, but it was wonderful. 'Everyone' was there. All four transports were there with tents set up, but wide open. People wandered between them and talked to everyone.

  The coaches and professors, who had a half-term left at schools, and the campus crew were all a bit wistful. China was more so than most. She'd spent almost all of Winter Carnival with the campus crew in Snowdale. She collected promises to tell her where they were going, when they knew. She also collected personal comm codes and made promises to call and "just chat."

  Keeva loudly complained that she wouldn't have to go back if the south continents "started autumn classes in autumn." Several others laughed and agreed. Coaches noted it was the first time they'd been unhappy terms in both hemispheres were on the same schedule.

  Jilli sighed. Blade told her she was going to love summer in Teal Valley, and so would her parents. One of the first things
she'd told him about her family was working on her parents', "You'll be so far away," with reminders she was the perfect excuse to leave cold and damp winter for beautiful summer.

  They left a little early for her flight, so they could drive through the campus once more. They didn't know their departure began the end of the evening, but anyone's would have. It was time to let the Teal and Gold Winter Carnival become a memory.

  Many aided cleanup and the tents came down. 'Extra' food was loaded into cars to go back to the dorms and the transports were cleaned, then everything that had come with them was packed and stored to go back. The driving teams got many reminders to trade off frequently. They said they'd be home for lunch and drove out. The dome still had many cars parked in it, but it looked empty without them.

  Those who had driven to the dome gave those who'd walked rides to their vehicles. Everyone was packed, even Dandy's 'ski shop' was ready to go, though the only vehicle it would fit in was Stats' transport and it did take a while to load. Others racked skis and loaded cars.

  They'd all decided not to spend a last night, even Mike, Loren and Elise, who'd planned to, felt it was time to go home, and watch the Carnival Recap Special after the news at twenty-two. Many would remain in the ski towns, in cafés and bars, until the recap ended.

  Danny and Dandy would get him unloaded, then go to the golf course snack shop, open late that night, with the doors to the banquet hall open, for all who wanted to have tea and hot pretzels with friends, while they watched. It was where Knight had told Blade to meet them.

  Knight took Deely home to get her car. Nev took Keeva to the house she'd bought her first trip to Teal Valley. He laughed when she decided to unpack everything. She put on her BNU jacket and cap and stated she was ready. He said, "Ow," and drove her to the flyer lot. It would be early evening there, when she arrived, but her body would still be on BNU time.

  Blade had just walked into the snack bar when Knight called and told him to come to Dandy's. Work lights came on as he was driving toward it and he knew what he'd find when he got there. He parked the car in the clear drive and waded into the drifted snow.

  "Knight, it's night."

  "This won't take long. Case and Stats will be back with material for a walk cover in a few minutes."

  "At least you didn't decide to dig up the walk to fix the melt unit."

  "Covered will also keep people dry, and doesn't require digging in frozen ground."

  "I'm going to do something about that convoluted garage entry, Blade. I don't know what yet, but something. It is not important to me to have a pantry that can be stocked from both sides or the laundry room next to the kitchen. I may take both out. I was just going to shovel to get it clear to move furniture, but I was outvoted, before Knight got here. Danny votes proxy for your neighborhood."

  "Princess prerogative, Dandy. Extensible?"

  "I don't know yet. Case and Stats said they have materials, what type not said. I do know getting ground clear both sides is a good idea."

  "One shovel. My turn?"

  "I'm really spoiled. I calculated how much faster this would be with seven different types of equipment, all sitting over at the U or in the workshop."

  "But we'll have it done in the length of time it would take to load any of them."

  "That's why we're shoveling. Nev stopped at the shop, so we may get it anyway."

  "They liked the front of the place open view, or they'd have done fixed, not removable, porch enclosure."

  "The porch isn't particularly warm, Blade. More used as non-freezing for plants than pleasant for people, I think. The enclosure is tight, but it's outdoor carpeted."

  "It looks like a summer-use design, Dandy. How is it inside?"

  "I love it. Some things need work, but it's just time to do them. It's been lived in, but given loving care. I've got almost enough furniture. Notably lacking is dining room. The kitchen has counter and booth and they left me the counter stools. I hate to mess with the kitchen, but the pantry is right in front of the door to the garage."

  "You could move the door."

  "Then I'd have a short-hall going nowhere, not big enough for the clothes cycler I'd have to move."

  "Short hallway two ways."

  "Yes."

  "The ladies?"

  "On flyers, except Deely and Danny, of course. Deely plans to watch with the grad students, so they can tease about how often she's on the screen, though it may be at the snack shop. Danny's inside making a furniture list. There they are. Nev's got the LH."

  "I'll move the Bolt."

  "He's not coming up the drive."

  "You will have a dent in your snow, Dandy."

  "We've got carpet and insul pad for the porch, cover for the walk and canopy for the drive, heaters for all. Case and Stats heard a forecast."

  "It's about to get frigid and unpleasant too. Warning melt units won't be able to keep up with wind in about three days, for about five. Real long-range is 'Well, it'll be nice again someday.' Teal Valley seems to have been chosen as a wind tunnel. It will be nice skiing in Frostlea most days. Here, the sledding hill may need a windbreak to keep from being a snow plateau with a bare middle."

  "Ooh, time to cover our drive."

  "We'll have to get a wider frame tomorrow, Blade.

  "Day's getting a snowblade. This drive and yours are the only ones too long and too exposed to be a quick clear."

  "You were planning and he beat you to it."

  "He said everyone in town won't call him, and fifteen days is fifteen days, Knight. My mom said she's getting one, but it won't be as blow up there. I think she plans to assure her staff can get out."

  "Probably, Stats. Enrollment is open. Perm frame?"

  "We've got ground sets that will let him take it down and store it. Extensible would probably hold the curve in a one hundred K wind."

  "Yipe!"

  "Probably higher gusts, Blade."

  "This wasn't expected."

  "It was a possible pattern shift. It shifted."

  "You guys aren't as used to having a twenty-day pattern shift as I am. Beldana doesn't have a climate. It has weather."

  "This is ready. Weather prediction is an exact science, for two days."

  "I'm thinking of putting a field over the yard again."

  "Put one over Silky's instead, Nev, that's the one you miss walking in, and their side yard is a great place for kids to play."

  "It's also a two-story house, Stats. With no trees higher than the roof."

  "I'm not the only one who misses walking in the sculpture garden, obviously."

  "We missed you coming through our house on the way there. It's still beautiful, but you sat on the grass or one of the benches most, not in the solarium."

  "Wait. None of us use the viewrooms like we planned. Why? What's missing in them? Milla uses the one at the cabin more than the one at the lake, but she uses both. Kail and Lillen use theirs. We have five in the neighborhood. We use one as a decoration and four as path connections. What do they lack for us to use them?"

  "I like them, Blade, I… just don't think of going to them, like the spare bedrooms in the house."

  "The view isn't enough to pull us to them, Nev."

  "Practice?"

  "Knight, you may have hit it exactly. We didn't build ours for the view, or Silky's, either. We're using them for the purpose we built them. Going just for the view doesn't occur to us."

  "Keeva and I used the one at the cabin."

  "So did Jilli and I, just the two of us, above the whole world, together."

  Knight grabbed one with each hand and threw them into the snow, side-by-side. He dove on top of both of them.

  "We are pledged to each other! You're my life companions, my pledged loves! I'm not leaving! You're not leaving! You can't have a lost love! And it's good thing the snow is deep, or I'd have damaged you reminding you I love you. And you love me!"

  "Knight,
they're face down in the snow."

  Knight rose to his knees and yanked them both up with him. Both gasped for air and began to giggle. Both thanked Case for the reminder. Knight thanked him, too. He said he didn't lose his temper often, and they'd better remember it, so he didn't. Dandy sat down and laughed.

  It didn't take them long to cover the path and put up the canopy, which was actually an enclosure. They laid carpet and rolled out the walk pad as they went to cars. Danny set up heaters behind them. They walked into the snack shop just as the hour-and-a-half recap of the twelve-day event began, at twenty-two thirty.

  At midnight, people applauded. Bance, Jace and Silky among them. Silky said they'd have company at the awards. Bance and Jace nodded.

  Hammison wasn't sure he wanted to approve the rebroadcast request on his screen. He had the feeling it was an irrevocable step for the world. He decided he needed advice. He called Kail, Larry, Chief Dennon, Andrea Pimberly, Bance and Nev. He told them all who was on the comm list at oh oh eight.

  "I've got a request for rebroadcast of both the closing ceremony segment and the recap, from Transspace News Network and I'm absolutely sure I should talk it over with someone else. You're the ones I got when I asked myself who, and I think I called your teams."

  "Three of us are at the snack shop, with teams."

  "I want Carler and Dorn."

  "Caelton and Ressen."

  "Geon and Morelli."

  "Where?"

  "Our house. We'll let our team select itself. A move will make it simpler, and we've got six comps."

  "Good idea, Nev. I'll call my boss. I don't think she'll come, but I want her to know I'm not making this decision alone."

  Nev told the big bunch what they were about to meet to discuss. He said he wanted everyone there who had a feeling they should be, and no one to feel they should be because it was expected. Bellin said she was going home and Tarn wasn't. Kady said she and Reesa were going home and Day wasn't. Elise said she and Loren were going home and Mike wasn't. He looked surprised, then nodded. Danny told Dandy he wasn't going home. Essa said she was. Chal offered Bellin a ride. Dawn surprised them when she said she and Drand were going home. Kendra said she'd like to, but wasn't. Ronnie looked at Dawn and said it wasn't time for her yet, either.

  Larry told Day, Mike and Tarn they were on his team. He told Kendra she was probably on everyone's. Danny told her protesting that was pointless, but she'd have a large number tucking her in if she yawned. Case looked at Stats. Stats told him they were going to a meeting, and he was probably on Bance's team. Case told Kendra Stats could keep up what she was doing, when she needed a bed. Stats nodded. Larry called Kail and asked him if he thought Milla was too pooped to be on his team. Kail told him she'd been sure she should come. Lillen would also be with him. Larry told him she was probably on Bance's team.

  When all arrived, they discussed what they felt and didn't know. Carler reorganized them a bit. He put Chief Dennon and Dorn on Larry's team, Hammison on Bance's, Ressen and Caelton and himself on Andrea's, and Morelli and Silky on Nev's. The 'everybody's' group were Kail's team. After he had, the teams knew what their jobs were. They needed a picture of the community of worlds and their interactions. They requested access to the archives on the Transspace News ship.

  Bance his team began finding the news that would aid them and Kail's began assembling the data in it for Cultures, Finance, and Design. The teams wouldn't really work separately, but they focused on different aspects. Within a few moments, they were functioning smoothly. Morelli said she was awed. Nev said he'd always known where he'd gotten his management talent, and that he'd only gotten some. Then Blade saw a landscape design and yelled an alert.

  There was something wrong with Jaden. A few moments later, they added Rimland, Manhome and Charasana. The four worlds closest to them were "stale if not stultified." Kendra said it was "a spreading disease," and they began looking for the source. Why did four worlds "do everything by a dull book?"

  It took them a while, but they found the source of the "fear of change," in a treaty, a religion and an interplanetary court decision. The odd religious sect no longer existed, but the treaty still did, and the decision rendered in the suit by the religious sect still did. The court decision hadn't been intended to stop innovation on the world of Jaden, but businesses had used it "as a tool to control competitors."

  They'd sent their exiles to a world on which the actions of the oligarchy were established procedure and their revolution a horror. They sent a message to the Chief Justice of the Interplanetary Supreme Court. Carler began it.

  "Two hundred twenty-eight years ago, the Supreme Court handed down a decision intended to protect the rights of a small group of people to live as they chose. That decision was used by businesses as a weapon against competition. The Northeast Interplanetary Commerce Treaty, ratified two hundred sixty-four years ago, allowed use of that weapon against businesses of neighboring worlds. There are four worlds on which no business can develop a new product and sell it, until all businesses can produce and sell it, and two more worlds are now being limited by law due to a second treaty."

  "The resulting cultural attitude is 'innovation is evil.' There's one world on which imagination is horrifying, three on which it's shameful and two on which it's becoming impolite to mention you have an idea."

  "The case is Followers of the Simple Light versus the government of Jaden. The sect met to meditate facing the rising sun each morning. A proposed intercontinental gravway would have put hauler traffic in their view of the sunrise on the east, and noise behind them on the west. The dawn meditation was central to their way of life."

  "The decision was not incorrect, but it was too broadly worded. Businesses sued any competitor, with a new product or method, on the basis loss of market share would infringe on the right of workers and stockholders to 'maintain their way of life.' Workers could not be fired unless businesses proved their incompetence or laziness were affecting the business and infringing the 'right of other workers to maintain their way of life.' Damages awarded in such suits were punitive, resulting in fear of not following established procedure precisely."

  "We have granted permission to rebroadcast the recap of a twelve-day sport and cultural event. During that period, this world was renamed, the continents were renamed, our money was renamed, and new coinage, made of new materials and minted with new technology, issued. The result of other new technology was announced, demonstrated and spoken of as both available for subsidiary licensing and export. We hope you can forestall declaration of war against this world. We'd win, but we'd dislike it intensely, or we'd have had a bloody revolution over a century ago."

  "Information source list, analysis, prediction of proliferation and recap being authorized for rebroadcast are attached. End message. Send to designated recipient. Copy to Defense Minister of Liberty Gem."

  "She's not going to be able to stop it."

  "No, Blade, she's not, but she may be able to tear apart the lace of treaties that would require thirty-four worlds to give military support."

  "Comm connect, Liberty Gem Portal, Transspace News ship, Bureau Chief Lardi Miller."

  "Miller. Good evening, Gen Hammison."

  "No, Fem Miller, it's not. Permission to rebroadcast is granted. Payment for use is waived. Get it out fast. Thirty-four worlds need to see it before Jaden, Manhome, Charasana and Rimland declare war on us and invoke military support treaties."

  "What?!"

  "We found the reason for the pervasive feeling it wasn't time to develop commercial and social ties with other worlds. We'd have started with those four and they consider us criminals, and the sale of new technology an additional illegal act and threat to their 'right to maintain their way of life.' That phrase is the basis of 'nothing ever happens' on those worlds. It was so abused by businesses to limit innovation by competition that the word 'innovation' is not used in the presenc
e of children. That's literal. Calling someone 'imaginative' is grounds for a charge of verbal abuse, also literal."

  "You found this in our archives?"

  "Beginning two hundred twenty-eight years ago, in archives purchased from Northeast Interplanet News fifty-seven years ago. They purchased them from Outlands News one hundred forty-seven years ago. By that time, businesses were carefully not 'beating the competition,' to avoid suits with punitive damage awards on Jaden. By the time you bought it, they were avoiding it on four and suits were so common on two more they didn't make the newscasts. They're being quickly settled with fast apologies and polite offers of use of patent license without fees now. Being sued for 'destroying lives' is embarrassing, so it's as un-news as possible. Four worlds are stultified, two are being crippled, nine are under threat and, because it's 'don't do anything new,' it's not news."

  "Most recent from one of those worlds is forty-one manufacturers put a four-year-old tech improvement into production the same day."

  "Nothing worth investigating or expanding. Get it out fast. Give thirty-four worlds as much time as possible to learn who we are, and decide not to send innocents to die fighting on the wrong side of war. If there are only four, we may be able to figure out a way to keep from killing them because they were taught 'idea' is a dirty word."

  "We'll get it out, then we'll get the real story there, and everywhere else. We're trying to get it here. It's not easy."

  "You have it. We're smarter, stronger and more unified than the people of any other world. That's not a brag. Smart, cooperative and profitable to the oligarchy were the premier survival traits for seven generations. For three, only healthy children could be born, and anyone not profitable enough in the workforce was added to the breeding stock being culled to produce high-quality slaves for export. Comm out."

  "We precipitated a war, but at least we're aware of it."

  "I wish I had a doubt of it, Andrea."

  "We all do, Chief."

  "Nev, look behind you."

  "How long has he been a statue, Blade?"

  "I think 'precipitated' precipitated something in there."

  "Let's get him on a comp."

  "No, Danny. He'll find a place to stop to rest. Nev and I will steer him to his room and stay to see what he does."

  "We have many beds available. Please use one if you'd even just like a nap before going home. Knight, this way. Blade, pull."

  "Come on, Knight. Nobody will head for bed until you move, and Lillen and Kendra need to."

  "That worked well. Goodnight, everyone."