THIRTY

The Right of Petition to the Podmaster was a convenient tradition. It even had a basis in historical fact, though Tomas Nau was sure that centuries ago, in the middle of the Plague Times, the only petitions granted were matters of propaganda. In modern times, the manipulation of petitions had been Uncle Alan's preferred way of maintaining popularity and undermining rival factions.

It was a clever tactic, as long as you avoided Alan's mistake of allowing assassins as petitioners. In the twenty-four years since their arrival at OnOff, Tomas Nau had passed on about a dozen petitions. This one today was the first that had claimed "time is of the essence."

Nau looked across the table at the five petitioners. Correction: representatives of Petitioners. They claimed one hundred backers, and on just 8Ksec notice. Nau smiled, waved them to their seats. "Pilot Manager Xin. You are senior, I believe. Please explain your Petition."

"Yes, Podmaster." Xin glanced at his girlfriend, Rita Liao. Both were Emergents from the home world, from families that had contributed Focused and Followers for more than three hundred years. Such were the backbone of the Emergent culture, and running them should have been easy. Alas, nothing was easy out here, twenty light-years from civilization. Xin was wordless for a second more. He stole a nervous glance at Kal Omo. Omo's returning look was very cold, and Nau suddenly wished he'd taken time to be briefed by the podsergeant. With Brughel currently off-Watch, there would be no one to blame if he had to deny the Petition.

"As you know, Podmaster, many of us are working with the ground analysis. Many more have a general interest in the Spiders we watch—"

Nau gave him a gentle smile. "I know. You hang out at Benny's and listen to the translations."

"Yes, sir. Um. We very much like ‘The Children's Hour,' and some of the story translations. They help us with our analysis. And..." His eyes got a faraway look. "I don't know. The Spiders have a whole world down there, even if they aren't human. Compared to us, sometimes they seem more—"Real, Nau was sure he was going to say. "I mean, we've come to be fond of some of the Spider children."

As planned.The live translations were heavily buffered now. They had never discovered precisely what caused the mindrot runaway—or even if it had been connected with the live show. Anne figured that the current risk was no more than that of their other operations. Nau reached to his right, gently touched Qiwi's hand. She smiled back. The Spider children were important. This was something he might never have understood if not for Qiwi Lisolet. Qiwi had been so good for so much. Watching her, talking to her, deceiving her—there was so much to learn. Real children would be an impossible drain on L1's resources, butsomething had to substitute. Qiwi and her schemes and her dreams had shown him the way. "We're all fond of the cobblies, Pilot Manager. Your petition has something to do with the kidnapping?"

"Yes, sir. It's been seventy Ksec since the abduction. The ‘Accord' Spiders are using their best comm and intelligence gear more intensely than ever before. It's not doingthem any good, but our zipheads are getting a lot from it. The Accord microwave links have been full of intercepted Kindred messages. Most of the Kindred encryption is algorithmic, not one-time pads. The Accord can't break any of it, but the algorithms, are easy for us. For the last forty Ksec, we—I—have been using our translators and analysts. I think I know where the children are being held. Five analysts give near certainty that—"

"Five analysts, three translators, and part of the snoop array over on theInvisible Hand. " Reynolt's voice was loud and implacable, overriding Xin's. "In addition, Manager Xin has been using almost a third of the support hardware."

Omo came on like a chorus, perhaps the first time Nau had ever seen Reynolt and Security in such concert: "And furthermore, it couldn't happen unless the Pilot Manager and a few other privileged managers were using emergency resource codes." Sergeant Omo's glance flickered across the petitioners. They shrank before his gaze, the Emergents more fearfully than Qeng Ho.Abuse of the community's resources. It was the primal sin. Nau smiled to himself. Brughel would have been still scarier, but Omo would do.

Nau raised his hand, and silence spread across the room. "I understand, Podsergeant. I want a report from you and Director Reynolt as to any lasting damage that might result from this..." He wouldn't actually use the words. "...activity." He was silent for a moment more, schooling his expression as if to hide the conflict of a just man trying to reconcile the desires of individuals with the long-term needs of the community. He felt Qiwi squeeze his hand. "Pilot Manager, you understand that we can't reveal ourselves?"

Xin looked completely cowed. "Yes, Podmaster."

"You of all people should know how thin we are stretched here. After the fighting, we were short on Focus and staff. After the rotting runaway of a few Watches back, we are even more lacking in Focus. We have no capital equipment, few weapons, and scarcely even an in-system transport capability. Wemight be able to intimidate a Spider faction or ally ourselves with one, but the risks would be enormous. Our surest course is the one we have pursued ever since the Diem Massacre: We must wait and lurk. We are just a few years short of this world's Information Age. Eventually, we will establish human automation in the Spiders' networks. Eventually they will have a civilization that can restore our ships, and one that we can safely manage. Till then...till then, we dare not take any direct action."

Nau's gaze took in each of the petitioners: Xin, Liao, Fong. Trinli sat a little apart, as if to show that he had tried to dissuade the others. Ezr Vinh was off-Watch, else he would surely be here. They were all troublemakers by Ritser Brughel's measure. Every Watch, their tiny pod here at L1 drifted further and further from the norms of an Emergent community. Part of it was their desperate circumstances, part of it was Qeng Ho assimilation. Even in defeat, the Peddler attitudes were corrosive. Yes, by civilized standards, these people were troublemakers—but they were also the people who, along with Qiwi, made the mission possible.

For a moment no one spoke. Tears leaked silently from Rita Liao's eyes. Hammerfest's microscopic gravity wasn't enough to tug them down her cheeks. Jau Xin's head bowed in submission. "I understand, Podmaster. We withdraw the petition."

Nau gave a gracious nod. There would be no punishment, and an important point had been made.

Then Qiwi patted his hand. She was grinning! "So why not make this a test for what we will do later? True, we can't reveal ourselves, but look at what Jau has done. For the first time, we're really using the Spiders' own intelligence system. Their automation may be twenty years short of an Information Age, but they are pushing computers even harder than in Earth's Dawn Age. Eventually, Anne's translators will be inserting information back into their systems, why not start now? Each year we should do a little more meddling and a little more experimentation."

Hope shone in Xin's eyes, but his words were still in retreat. "But are they that far along? These creatures just launched their first satellite last year. They don't have pervasive localizer nets—or any localizer nets at all. Except for that pitiful link from Princeton to Lands Command, they don't even have a computer net. How can we get information back into their system?"

Yes, how?

But Qiwi was still smiling. It made her look so young, almost like the first years that he'd had her. "You said that the Accord has intercepted Kindred comm related to the kidnapping?"

"Sure. That's howwe know what's going on. But Accord Intelligence can't break the Kindred crypto."