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The following day, very little happens, except for Vorreedi mentioning that Yenaro has been arrested (by the civil police, for theft, on charges from a ghem-lord Miles has never heard of, as opposed to by Cetagandan security for treason).
Also, Ivan gets bored - with all the bodyguards Vorreedi now requires for them after the incident at the bioestheties exhibition, the possible spontaneity of going out with his ghem girlfriends is much reduced.
But the next day they get to attend the Singing Open of the Great Gates.
And oh, is there ever singing.
+ Show First Post
middlingalong
isthisart
Linyabel takes the real Key, Nadina sits on her again with the fake Keys. "Get on, let's go -"
The door hisses open, and it wasn't her opening it.
The door hisses open, and it wasn't her opening it.
thisvorlunatic
Miles fires his stunner at whoever is coming through and hops back onto his rearward perch. "I'm on! Force-screen up!"
isthisart
Down goes a trooper; up goes the screen, protecting them all from massed stunner fire; but the door is rather blocked by more personnel, leaving them trapped.
Governor Kety strolls through the door, and palm-locks it. "Well, well," he says, almost serenely. "What have we here?"
Governor Kety strolls through the door, and palm-locks it. "Well, well," he says, almost serenely. "What have we here?"
thisvorlunatic
Miles growls under his breath. They have everything, he and Linyabel - the Key, Nadina - everything except an escape route. And Kety needs some way to extract them all from this bubble... but they know he has such a way, because he managed it with Nadina. There's no way the float-chair's puny comlink can reach all the way to the Star Creche from here. If only they could—get a signal out—
"Ah-ha," he mutters, craning around the back of the chair to address Linyabel's ear. "Listen - could you download the Great Key onto this chair? I just had a crazy brilliant idea."
"Ah-ha," he mutters, craning around the back of the chair to address Linyabel's ear. "Listen - could you download the Great Key onto this chair? I just had a crazy brilliant idea."
isthisart
"...yes," says Linyabel, producing the key-opener ring and opening up the real Key in her hand. "The chair's comlink can't reach all the way planetside to get it back to the Star Creche, though."
thisvorlunatic
"Doesn't have to. We'll send it as a distress signal - there's a booster on the orbital transfer station, right next to this ship; I know the codes. Patch it through that, maximum emergency override, and it goes to every ship and station currently in the Eta Ceta star system. No damn good to any of them, of course, without the gene bank to go with it - but it'll get back to the Star Creche for sure. And I'd like to see Kety try to keep a lid on his little plot after that. Can you do it? And keep him out of the bubble long enough for all the information to get through?"
isthisart
"I don't know how he cracks the bubbles - Nadina? -"
"It'll take a while," Nadina says. "Half an hour last time, I assume they've changed the codes or he'd be through already."
"But - yes, I think this qualifies as an emergency -" Linyabel starts fussing with her various devices and the controls of the chair. "There. It's started."
"It'll take a while," Nadina says. "Half an hour last time, I assume they've changed the codes or he'd be through already."
"But - yes, I think this qualifies as an emergency -" Linyabel starts fussing with her various devices and the controls of the chair. "There. It's started."
isthisart
Linyabel applies them, and some more besides - "Lisbet gave me an Imperial override, thank you Lisbet - there."
Kety, meanwhile, is apparently ready to wait his half-hour to crack the bubble open again, but:
"Haut-governor," comes a nervous subordinate's voice. "We are experiencing a peculiar communication over emergency channels. An enormous data dump is being speed-loaded onto our systems. Some kind of coded gibberish, but it has exceeded the memory capacity of the receiver and is spilling over into other systems like a virus. It's marked with an Imperial override. The initial signal appears to be originating from our ship. Is this... something you intend?"
It is not something Kety intends. He swears. "No. Get ghem-General Naru and his people awake! We have to get this force-screen down now!"
There follow creative medical attempts to revive the stunned techs and general.
Kety, meanwhile, is apparently ready to wait his half-hour to crack the bubble open again, but:
"Haut-governor," comes a nervous subordinate's voice. "We are experiencing a peculiar communication over emergency channels. An enormous data dump is being speed-loaded onto our systems. Some kind of coded gibberish, but it has exceeded the memory capacity of the receiver and is spilling over into other systems like a virus. It's marked with an Imperial override. The initial signal appears to be originating from our ship. Is this... something you intend?"
It is not something Kety intends. He swears. "No. Get ghem-General Naru and his people awake! We have to get this force-screen down now!"
There follow creative medical attempts to revive the stunned techs and general.
thisvorlunatic
Miles clings to the back of the float-chair and cackles wildly.
Unfortunately for him, the back of the float-chair is not really designed for this sort of thing. Caution and determination have kept him in place so far; now, just as his laughter begins to calm, he slips. His cramped fingers are too slow to catch him. The force-screen makes a sound like a dropped wasp's nest when he hits it - a crackling thump and a rising angry buzz. And everywhere he touches the surface is one continuous painful shock until he breaks contact. He yelps and tries to climb back up onto the chair, but only manages to roll underneath it, his feet kicking the power pack at the back while his hands flail for purchase on the footrest and his head bumps the undercarriage in his efforts to keep his face off the buzzing force-screen.
Unfortunately for him, the back of the float-chair is not really designed for this sort of thing. Caution and determination have kept him in place so far; now, just as his laughter begins to calm, he slips. His cramped fingers are too slow to catch him. The force-screen makes a sound like a dropped wasp's nest when he hits it - a crackling thump and a rising angry buzz. And everywhere he touches the surface is one continuous painful shock until he breaks contact. He yelps and tries to climb back up onto the chair, but only manages to roll underneath it, his feet kicking the power pack at the back while his hands flail for purchase on the footrest and his head bumps the undercarriage in his efforts to keep his face off the buzzing force-screen.
isthisart
"Nadina," says Linyabel, trying to reach under the chair. "Help -"
Eventually, between the two of them, Linyabel manages to pick him up and - hold him, without having to lose all three of them the bubble's protection. She can't really put him down; there's nowhere to put him. He's sort of tucked under her arm.
Eventually, between the two of them, Linyabel manages to pick him up and - hold him, without having to lose all three of them the bubble's protection. She can't really put him down; there's nowhere to put him. He's sort of tucked under her arm.
thisvorlunatic
Hopefully she won't mind if he just sort of groans a bit and then clings to her.
It is around this time that a spot on the door begins to glow.
It is around this time that a spot on the door begins to glow.
isthisart
Linyabel doesn't mind.
The door bursts inward in a spray of molten plastic and metal, and in comes ghem-Colonel Benin, and a thoroughly armed squad behind him.
Kety's people spontaneously decide in favor of surrender.
Vorreedi steps in behind Benin. Ivan is there, too, shifting anxiously.
"Good evening, haut Kety," says Benin, bowing cordially. "By the personal order of Emperor Fletchir Giaja, it is my duty to arrest you and ghem-General Naru both upon the serious charge of treason to the Empire. And," he adds, smiling, "complicity in the murder of the Imperial Servitor the Ba Lura."
Linyabel relaxes considerably, though not enough to drop Miles, and she doesn't take down the force screen until the arrests are all complete. Then she takes it down to let Nadina out and rearrange Miles more comfortably on the chair's arm, her own arm around him to steady him there.
The door bursts inward in a spray of molten plastic and metal, and in comes ghem-Colonel Benin, and a thoroughly armed squad behind him.
Kety's people spontaneously decide in favor of surrender.
Vorreedi steps in behind Benin. Ivan is there, too, shifting anxiously.
"Good evening, haut Kety," says Benin, bowing cordially. "By the personal order of Emperor Fletchir Giaja, it is my duty to arrest you and ghem-General Naru both upon the serious charge of treason to the Empire. And," he adds, smiling, "complicity in the murder of the Imperial Servitor the Ba Lura."
Linyabel relaxes considerably, though not enough to drop Miles, and she doesn't take down the force screen until the arrests are all complete. Then she takes it down to let Nadina out and rearrange Miles more comfortably on the chair's arm, her own arm around him to steady him there.
thisvorlunatic
Miles decides that he is totally willing to keep leaning on Linyabel until such time as she tells him to get lost or somebody picks him up and hauls him bodily away.
middlingalong
Of all the things Ivan could be having a reaction to, the sight of Miles perched on the arm of a haut-lady's float-chair with her arm around him appears to be the most pressing, but he doesn't formulate an immediate verbal comment.
Kety growls, "Congratulations, Lord Vorpatril. I hope you may be fortunate enough to survive your victory."
"Huh?" says Ivan.
The arrestees are marched away before anyone elaborates.
"Miles," says Ivan, sighing, "are you all right?"
Kety growls, "Congratulations, Lord Vorpatril. I hope you may be fortunate enough to survive your victory."
"Huh?" says Ivan.
The arrestees are marched away before anyone elaborates.
"Miles," says Ivan, sighing, "are you all right?"
thisvorlunatic
"Wurgh," says Miles, then clears his throat and tries again. "F-fell onto the inside of the force-screen. The ladies hauled me off it. I'll be fine. I'm not entirely looking forward to the next time I have to walk, but luckily there's this float-chair..."
isthisart
Linyabel raises an eloquent eyebrow at Ivan, and transfers Miles to her lap, pointedly.
Vorreedi looks Miles up and down. "It might be more convenient if you'd been injured by an attacker. Vorob'yev is going to need all the ammunition he can get. You have created the most extraordinary public incident of his career, I suspect."
Vorreedi looks Miles up and down. "It might be more convenient if you'd been injured by an attacker. Vorob'yev is going to need all the ammunition he can get. You have created the most extraordinary public incident of his career, I suspect."
thisvorlunatic
"Fat chance of it staying public," Miles mutters, leaning dizzily on Linyabel. He resists the urge to burrow. Just sitting in a haut-lady's lap is probably quite enough of an etiquette breach, without also having the temerity to cuddle her...
middlingalong
Nadina, meanwhile, is being supplied with another float-chair and more supplementation to her outfit and ghem-lady attendants. Linyabel gets a ghem-lady attendant too.
"I explained everything," Ivan tells Miles, "as best I could, um, under the circumstances."
"I admit," Vorreedi says, "I am still... assimilating it."
"I explained everything," Ivan tells Miles, "as best I could, um, under the circumstances."
"I admit," Vorreedi says, "I am still... assimilating it."
thisvorlunatic
Right. Miles sighs.
"What, uh, happened after I left the Star Creche?" he asks Ivan.
"What, uh, happened after I left the Star Creche?" he asks Ivan.
middlingalong
"I woke up and you were gone. I think that was the worst moment of my life. Knowing you'd gone haring off on some insane self-appointed mission without backup."
middlingalong
"Your favorite kind, knocked out cold on the floor, unable to inject sense into the proceedings, so you could take off to get killed or worse when everybody would have blamed me. The last thing Aunt Cordelia said to me before we left was 'And try to keep him out of trouble, Ivan.'" He parodies the Betan accent and everything. "Anyway, as soon as I figured out what the hell was going on, I got away from the haut-ladies - they're just like my mother, Miles, several times over, ugh - anyway, and Lisbet very emphatically suggested I talk to ghem-Colonel Benin, and he seemed like he had his head screwed on straight -" Benin drifts over to listen in. "And God be praised he actually listened to me. Made sense of my - gabble."
"I was, of course," says Benin, "following the very unusual activities around the Star Creche today. My own investigations had already led me to suspect something was going on involving one or more of the haut-governors, so I had orbital squads on alert."
"Squads," snorts Ivan. "There's three Imperial battle cruisers surrounding this ship, right now."
"I was, of course," says Benin, "following the very unusual activities around the Star Creche today. My own investigations had already led me to suspect something was going on involving one or more of the haut-governors, so I had orbital squads on alert."
"Squads," snorts Ivan. "There's three Imperial battle cruisers surrounding this ship, right now."
thisvorlunatic
"Sounds about right. Ghem-General Chilian's a dupe," he addresses Benin, "but you might want to ask him a few pointed questions about his wife the haut Vio."