The tall black man walked into the garden to meet his employer. His employer stood next to the edge of the garden, which overlooked the valley below. He waited politely until the other turned from his contemplation of the scenery.
"The winds of change are blowing my friend." The older man spoke quietly. He was dressed in the traditional Chinese robes of a mandarin, as most of the Parliament members from Sihnon did. "I have need of your services lest the tempest tear away all that we have built."
"I await your orders, as always." The black man stood calmly, his stance balanced and unconsciously graceful.
"It is needful that I speak of certain matters that I have not brought up before now. I trust you will not think ill of me for keeping secrets?"
"Knowing secrets does not concern me--keeping them does." The man said quietly. "If I needed to know before now I'm sure you would have told me."
The older man nodded.
"In the Parliament there are factions as you know. Some factions openly wield great power, while others prefer to work quietly. Thus we live in an ocean filled with different currents, some visible, some not." The oriental man's voice was pitched low to keep his words from going further than his companion's ears.
"Some factions do not view themselves so, believing their actions are those of individuals, others are part of a group and these groups take names their members feel align with their aims. Thus we name ourselves the Steady Hand, for we seek to preserve balance within the Alliance, and see to it that no faction dangerously disturbs the harmony of the whole."
The younger man nodded, knowing his employer was merely marshalling his thoughts.
"There is a faction known as the Guiding Light. You are aware of them?"
"Yes. They seek to expand the Alliance to the outer planets, and to improve mankind in general. The Steady Hand has supported them in the past--but has also been watching them carefully."
"Just so." The older man agreed. "The Guiding Light is very powerful but they work from the shadows, as we do. Their aim is certainly noble but has the potential to end in disaster, given some of their more ambitious projects. Have you heard of Miranda?"
The younger man thought a moment. "A failed colony world, was it not? Something went wrong with the terraforming efforts."
The older man shook his head. "No. That is the story circulated to the families of those who lost loved ones on Miranda, but that story was a kindly lie, to cover the truth. The Guiding Light was implementing one of their most ambitious projects on Miranda. Something went wrong. No, that is not strong enough. Something went disastrously wrong. The Guiding Light had overreached their knowledge. The entire colony was lost--over thirty million people died."
He paused, turning back to look out into the valley again.
"The Guiding Light is powerful. As you know the Blue Sun corporation has many board members who are part of that faction. Thus the Guiding Light was able to erase most of the evidence of their monumental failure."
The older man fell silent, obviously debating how to continue. The younger man waited patiently.
"We of the Steady Hand even extended our own efforts--because we wished to preserve the Alliance. Had the truth become known it could very well have resulted in another civil war--one which would have pitted the Alliance against itself instead of the Independents. And that must not happen." He looked at his employee. "Do you understand?"
"Yes." The younger man nodded. "What is it you require of me?"
The older man smiled. "Patience, my young friend. There is more you must know. Had Miranda merely been the result of terraforming gone wrong it would have been a tragedy of epic proportions but it would not concern the Steady Hand. The truth is Miranda's terraforming did not fail. The planet is still habitable. You or I could stand in one of its cities this very moment should we choose to."
"I don't understand." The younger man said with a frown. "How did the colony die then?"
"The Guiding Light has great power, and great knowledge. Unfortunately, in this case their ambitions outraced their wisdom." The older man rested one hand on the marble railing in front of him.
"In the name of improving humanity the faction created a new drug, dispensed in the atmosphere. They were using it on Miranda." He turned to smile at the younger man but the smile was sardonic.
"They had tested it thoroughly, you understand. It was completely safe. Their aim was to reduce violence among the populace, to produce a superior society. Miranda was to be their crowning glory."
"Let me guess. The drug was not safe?" The younger man offered. The older man bit off a harsh laugh.
"Oh it was--they tested it extensively, with several hundred subjects. Except they didn't test it on Miranda." He looked at the younger man with an ironic expression. "Although it worked on Miranda as well--but much better than the Guiding Light desired."
"What do you mean?"
"On Miranda the drug didn't just reduce aggression--it reduced everything. People simply laid down wherever they happened to be and happily starved to death, or died of dehydration."
"What?" The normally unflappable black man gaped.
The older man nodded. "By the time the Guiding Light knew anything was wrong it was already too late. On Miranda, the effect of the drug is permanent once administered. Anywhere else the effect is temporary. Something about Miranda supercharged the drug--even faction members stationed on the planet were affected. No one on Miranda had the will to call for help--or to do anything at all."
"Within 12 hours the drug had circulated throughout Miranda's atmosphere and the entire population had been exposed. The Guiding Light didn't hear from their colony--or two separate expeditions they sent to find out what happened."
"Of course the drug was the primary suspect. Once mixed with air the drug will slowly break down. After a month no trace of the drug remains. So after two months the faction sent another ship, a research vessel. On board were the drug's primary development team. The faction had already started making preparations for damage control you see."
"The research vessel crashed, but was still able to radio in reports from the surface. That's why we know as much as we do. For a few days the team performed analysis and other tasks normally. But then members of the team began disappearing one by one. Two days later all contact with the transport was lost."
"The drug wasn't entirely gone?" The younger man guessed.
"That's what the faction thought at first. To avoid losing any more people they decided to quarantine the planet and placed a monitor in orbit to warn approaching ships away. They concocted the terraforming story as a cover. And there the story should have ended."
The old man watched his companion expectantly. Obediently the younger man asked the question.
"Should have ended? There's more?"
"Yes. Reavers." The older man said quietly.
"Reavers?" The younger man's forehead crinkled in puzzlement. "What about them?"
"Six months passed uneventfully. The faction rotated the monitor ship in orbit around Miranda every two months--normal procedure for Alliance military assignments. The third ship was preparing to leave orbit having just been relieved by the fourth when it detected a large number of vessels launching from the planet's surface."
"I don't understand. I thought the entire populace had been killed." The younger man said.
The older man nodded. "So everyone had thought. The monitor radioed a report and tried to hail the approaching ships, which failed to respond. The monitor began continuous transmission to the Guiding Light as they'd been instructed to do if anything unusual happened. That's why we know what happened next."
"The two monitors were literally swarmed. One tried to break orbit but was chased down and boarded by Reavers. The faction has recordings of what happened next. Several hours of them. We now know in a tiny number of people the supercharged drug doesn't kill, it mutates the victim--into a Reaver."
"The monitors' crews didn't survive?" The younger man asked impassively. The older man shook his head.
"No. The Guiding Light kept track of the Reavers as their fleet orbiting Miranda grew larger. For obvious reasons the last thing the faction wanted was a military confrontation. That would have revealed Miranda to the system as a whole and certainly bring down the faction--and with it the Alliance itself."
"I tell you this so you understand how grave the danger is. The Steady Hand was taken by surprise. The development of the drug and the whole Miranda disaster were unforeseen. Fortunately for the Alliance the Reavers remained content to stay in orbit around Miranda and send small raiding parties against isolated ships and the occasional outlying colony. This poses no threat to our goals and is thus tolerable."
The younger man nodded his agreement. "You spoke of the winds of change. Has something happened?"
"You could say that." The older man's mouth twisted in a grimace the younger man knew was aimed at the situation.
"The Guiding Light uses operatives just as we do. They also have the resources of the Blue Sun corporation at their disposal. One of the more formidable of these resources are the Hunter-Killer class attack ships."
"Approximately one month ago two operatives of the Guiding Light were hunting an Academy experimental proto-operative who had escaped. They traced her to a tramp freighter named Serenity. They were onboard the Guiding Light's hunter-killer Sa Shui Jiao and had radioed that they were closing on Serenity which had rendezvoused with another ship. They intended to either retrieve the proto-operative or destroy both ships if it appeared the proto-operative was being traded to another faction."
"That was the last transmission from the Sa Shui Jiao."
"A Hunter-Killer can run down and destroy any ship in space, including an Alliance cruiser." The younger man commented thoughtfully. "Have they located the ship yet?"
The older man shook his head. "They have not. Nor have we, nor detected any debris that might belong to the Sa Shui Jiao, Serenity, or this mysterious third ship."
"Intriguing but I do not see how it's related to the current situation." The young man commented in a polite tone.
"Nor would I--except the Guiding Light believes this proto-operative has knowledge of the Miranda incident. Given her current mental state and the fact she's remained out of sight for over a year she is unlikely to prove a threat to the Steady Hand. Our pursuing her might have brought the Academy to the attention of those in the Parliament inimical to our faction. Thus we have no interest in the girl."
"But as the Guiding Light had a more pressing need to hunt her we allowed them to do so, since their actions can't implicate us or reveal our Academy." He shrugged. "It was thought to be an economical solution that would harmonize relations with the Guiding Light. Now that they have lost the Sa Shui Jiao it seems our caution was warranted."
"You suspect a proto-operative destroyed a hunter-killer while on board a freighter? That seems--implausible."
"Agreed. I wouldn't entertain the idea at all--except for what happened forty-eight hours ago." The older man answered.
"It seems the Reaver fleet suddenly decided ten years of inactivity was enough. The entire fleet, some three hundred vessels suddenly decided to attack New Melbourne en masse."
The younger man's eyebrows shot up in spite of himself. "That is very bad."
"Yes." The older man nodded. "Very bad indeed. It could have wrecked the Alliance. Fortunately, Buddha smiled upon us all. The Reaver fleet was destroyed some 18 hours from New Melbourne. And when I say destroyed, I mean annihilated utterly. Every single ship's nuclear reactor detonated within a minute of each other. But it wasn't Alliance forces that did it."
"That's impossible." The younger man said after digesting the news. The older man nodded.
"Yes, it's completely impossible. But several monitoring stations caught the explosions. There is no doubt as to what happened--only as to why, how, and who."
"In addition the Guiding Light seems to have stepped out of the shadows because of the Reaver attack. They have used their influence to have Dortmunder ferry a science vessel to the remains of the Reaver fleet. As we speak the cruiser has matched vectors with the debris field and the science vessel has commenced its investigation. One final item to consider: Madame Li herself is on board the Dortmunder."
"Where do I come into the picture?" The young man asked.
"Because of the Reaver Fleet's departure and the disarray of the Guiding Light, Miranda is now unguarded. The risk of accidental exposure is too great. Our faction has determined the Guiding Light threatens the balance that holds the Alliance together." The older man's face turned grave.
"Remove the faction's top five leaders and the resulting chaos within their ranks will cause the Guiding Light to--go out." The older man watched his companion steadily. "This is not an easy assignment. You may fail. And if you do the Steady Hand must not be compromised. Do you understand?"
"Of course." The younger man bowed. Turning he strode from the garden. With a heavy sigh the older man returned to his contemplation of the valley.
