'You can't be certain, though. And how come you have such highly placed contacts in their filthy organization?

'I simply know who to ask in such circumstances, that's all. Information does not imply compliance; and I don't know where my data originates from.

'Pah! She turned to watch the desert skim past.

Aaron waited a minute for her to relent. When she didn't, he smiled quietly and said, 'Inigo bought a rejuvenation policy.

'So? She managed to spit it out with more petulance than a tantruming five-year-old.

'It was part of his attempt to fit in with a normal existence, Aaron continued passively. 'No one with biononics needs a rejuvenation treatment, that's strictly for Advancers and normals. Biononics maintain human cells at an optimum state; the body doesn't age biologically after you hit twenty-five. He did it to fool the Protectorate. After all, he knew what his heritage was, which means he knew what they would do to him if he made a slip.

'And that helps us how?

'It means he had a secure memory store. It probably dates right up to his assignment to Centurion Station.

'I'm so sorry, I didn't realize you were deaf. And that helps us how?

'Somewhere on Anagaska there's an electronic version of the young Inigo's personality. Alkoff gave me the name of the company he bought the policy from.

'That's not going to— Oh dear Ozzie! You have got to be kidding.

Aaron grinned cheerfully at her. 'About time this planet saw a little excitement.

Prior to the Starflyer war, when the Commonwealth was essentially one society comprising predominantly physical citizens, the government created a very senior committee named the Exo-Protectorate Council whose brief was to evaluate the threat level presented by each new alien species as it was discovered. After ANA came on line and took over design, manufacture, and operation of the Commonwealth Navy's warships, threat became something of a non-term. If the old Commonwealth could defeat the Primes, ANA with its near post-physical technology was unlikely to be menaced by anything less than a malevolent post-physical. That wasn't to say that the remaining physical sector of the Commonwealth couldn't encounter a whole load of grief out among the stars. So the ExoProtectorate Council lived on in a modified form inside ANA, operating independently from ANA: Governance.

Its meetings were few and infrequent. Therefore, when Admiral Kazimir called for one, every delegate appeared, suspecting the reason. They met in a neutral perceptual reality in a secure location within ANA, comprising an old-fashioned conference room with rather extravagant white and orange furniture and a panoramic window showing them the Mollavian plains with their wall of hydrogen volcanoes. Sheets of ice-pebble meteorites sleeted downwards, burning crimson contrails with lightning forks rippling in their wake.

Kazimir activated the perceptual reality, and materialized in the seat at the head of the table. Gore flicked in a millisecond later, sitting directly to Kazimir's right. He was followed by Justine. Ilanthe was next to appear, a delicate-looking woman dressed in a blue and grey leotard. Her dark hair had been cropped short and coloured with purple streaks. They didn't represent any kind of enrichments, they were just highlights. It was a style which Kazimir thought he recognized, but couldn't quite place without running a check through his enhanced neural structure. Ilanthe wasn't worth the effort; she was the Accelerator Faction's appointment to the Council, and enjoyed making mischief where she could. The trick with her was not to rise to the bait.

Crispin Goldreich arrived in the seat next to Justine. Over a thousand years ago he'd been a Senator sitting on the original ExoProtectorate Council. It was an appointment he'd maintained ever since. Kazimir and ANA: Governance allowed him to remain because when it came to advising on the political angle of a crisis there were few better short of a full Governance convocation. Unfortunately, his usefulness was limited by a somewhat xenophobic view of aliens; several members of his family had been lost on Nattavaara during the Starflyer War, which had shaped his opinion ever since. As such he was a strong advocate of both the Isolationist and Internalist Factions.

The last two were Creewan and John Thelwell, who respectively put forward Custodian and Darwinist Faction positions.

'Thank you for attending, Kazimir said. 'I have implemented this Council because the situation with regards to the Ocisen Empire has entered a new stage. The Navy squadron deployed in the Hancher domain have detected a massive Empire fleet is now in flight. Its trajectory is aimed directly at the Commonwealth, specifically the sector containing Ellezelin.

'How many ships? Justine asked.

'Two thousand eight hundred and seventeen, Kazimir replied. 'Of which nine hundred are their Starslayer class, the biggest most expensive warships they've ever built. The Empire's economy has suffered a significant downturn over the last forty years in order to facilitate their production. They are armed with warheads similar to quantumbusters. They think we don't know about them, but we detected the trials they conducted forty-five years ago.

'They have quantumbusters? Crispin asked.

'A variant of, yes, Kazimir said. 'Such a development was inevitable. They make our atom-bomb-era species look like a bunch of pacifists.

'And the Navy hasn't bothered to share this with us?

'The Empire believes their advantage is that we don't know. To make it public knowledge that the Empire possesses a device which the External Worlds would regard as a doomsday weapon would be to give away our advantage, not to mention damaging public confidence.

'They must be insane, Creewan muttered. 'The Emperor must realize how we'll react to an assault of that nature. They know how strong we are.

'Actually, they don't, Kazimir said. 'Nobody outside ANA: Governance and myself knows the exact capability of the deterrence fleet.

'Please tell me it is strong enough to deal with the Ocisen Empire.

'Don't concern yourself on that score. They do not pose any sort of threat.

'Are they alone? Gore asked. 'The Ambassador was quite adamant that they'd dug up some decent allies.

'There were no non-Empire ships in the fleet which launched, Kazimir said.

'We'll make a politician out of you yet, my boy. So do we know for sure that the Starslayer class are only armed with quantumbusters, or have they found some nasty left overs from someone who went post-physical?

'We'd have to intercept a Starslayer and scan it to be certain of the precise contents, Kazimir said. 'I don't advise that. In Ocisen terms that provocation would be a declaration of war. Plus, we'd tip their hand how powerful we are.

'Well what the hell do you advise? Crispin asked. 'They're going to find out eventually.

I'd like to avoid that. What I'd like to see applied to the Ocisens is something along the lines of intense diplomatic persuasion that they turn the fleet round and go home.

'Won't happen, Creewan said. 'If the Empire has launched what is essentially their entire Navy at us, it will be politically impossible for them to return until the Pilgrimage has been halted. Asking them nicely just won't hack it. We'll have to use force.

'What about another more immediate threat to the Empire? Justine suggested. 'Some unknown ships approaching from another direction? We could deliver that, surely?

'Yes, said Kazimir. 'But it simply postpones the inevitable. We can manufacture what appears to be a threat, but if their fleet returns to challenge an intruder then our bluff will be called. I cannot blow up star systems simply to maintain an illusion. No matter the morality, there is a considerable physical problem with radiation. Our Firewall project showed that.