“It is a coincidence,” Ingray insisted. “Coincidences happen.”
“But as a result of this one,” Chenns said, “our plans have been disrupted. It’s not just the presence of the Geck that’s done this. Garal Ket’s presence here has also changed conditions we were depending on.”
Ingray frowned, puzzled. Then remembered that Prolocutor Budrakim had been on his way to the station when he’d learned that Pahlad Budrakim had returned from Compassionate Removal.
But he’d been on his way because of the Geck. If the Geck hadn’t come, would he have been on the station now for some other reason?
The First Assembly had been in session. In theory all eight members could hold meetings long-distance easily enough. In practice they did need to meet in person every now and then, and besides, anyone interested in running for Prolocutor of the First Assembly needed to be familiar to the voters of Hwae Station, who just from sheer numbers tended to dominate prolocutorial elections.
The Omkem had been delayed taking the Chambers because the presence of the Geck had compelled them to take a longer way there. If not for the Geck, Commander Hatqueban might have been able to hold the entire First Assembly hostage, and with it, legal authority over Hwae Station. And authority over Hwae Station ultimately meant control of the system’s most valuable resources—the station itself, the gates to other systems. Access to the planet.
It suited Tyr for Pahlad to come back, Nuncle Lak had said. And Ingray had replied, It suited Tyr to embarrass Prolocutor Budrakim. And Garal had confirmed both statements.
Would Prolocutor Budrakim have gone up to the station at this time even if the Geck hadn’t come? Ethiat Budrakim was Prolocutor of the Third Assembly, not the First. He wouldn’t have had any reason to be with the First Assembly when the Omkem captured it. But maybe he had known this was coming, and had some role to play. The heroic negotiator who ended a tense and dangerous standoff, maybe?
Tyr couldn’t have known, could they? Certainly they couldn’t have known about the Geck, but could they have known the Omkem were planning this? Maybe not this thing specifically, why would anyone try to counter an invasion with an escaped convict? But something. Something they thought Ethiat Budrakim might be involved in. Ethiat Budrakim is many things, but he is not stupid and he is not a traitor, Nuncle Lak had said.
“The Federacy has been paying off Prolocutor Budrakim to speak in favor of allowing your fleets to get to Byeit through our system,” said Ingray. “I imagine you’ve been sending gifts to any Assembly representatives who might sway the argument in your favor, but you’ll have focused on the prolocutors. You expected Prolocutor Budrakim—and maybe other specific representatives—to be on the station when you arrived. Either in the First Assembly Chambers to be captured, or outside to advise System Defense to stand down so that he could negotiate a settlement. Right?” No change of expression on Excellency Chenns’s face. “But he got turned around when he learned that Garal was back, and the others were evacuated when it took you too long to get to the Assembly Chambers because the presence of the Geck made you go the long way around.” Chenns said nothing, just looked at her, serious. Still expressionless. Ingray supposed that it was possible the younger Prolocutor Budrakim wasn’t in on it, or the elder Ethiat Budrakim didn’t want her taking part for whatever reason. Garal had suggested that e might still speak to eir sister, if e had the chance. Or maybe she had known, but refused to do it. “That was the plan, right? Prolocutor Budrakim was supposed to broker some kind of agreement to get your hostages released in return for letting the Federacy use our Byeit gate. You would get your access, which he didn’t care much about one way or another, and he would come out of it looking like he’d done something heroic, something that might even get him a shot at archprolocutor. But Garal coming back, that concerned him far more than any plans he had with you, because if the story came out of how his own child had ended up in Compassionate Removal for something e hadn’t done, and Prolocutor Budrakim knew it, his reputation would be badly damaged and as far as the prolocutor was concerned the whole exercise would be pointless.” It couldn’t have been this specific series of events Tyr had wanted to affect, Ingray realized. But someone must have seen Prolocutor Budrakim as a step for the Federacy’s move closer to Tyr, and acted to remove that step. “Excellency Zat’s death just gives you one more grievance to justify what you’re doing, one more perfectly understandable demand to make, one that’s bound to play well on the news services back home, on top of getting rid of Zat herself. I’m sure it’s no coincidence that Commander Hatqueban is related to Excellency Hevom, or that Zat’s death came as a surprise to her. I’m sure that it did—otherwise there wouldn’t have been any reason to ask me about it. So I imagine the commander was chosen for this mission precisely because she would take personal offense at Hevom’s arrest.”
Still Chenns said nothing. Prolocutor Dicat, in eir chair, gave another snort.
“That’s quite a story you’ve constructed,” Chenns said, after a long pause. “Even with the news services pushing it, I imagine most Omkem would find the murder of Excellency Zat insufficient justification for military action. But I can think of quite a few people who would be glad to see her gone, and it’s so much neater to take what you want and then place the responsibility for it well away from home. It would be easy enough for it to have been undertaken by people who had no idea that anything else was being planned.”
“Or who did and thought a little extra grievance wouldn’t hurt,” suggested Prolocutor Dicat. “They wouldn’t need to have told you about it ahead of time.”
“No,” said Ingray, “all they needed to do was assign this mission to Hevom’s cousin.”
Chenns sighed. “I’m going to go talk to the commander.” He rose from his crouch. “Please, don’t do anything rash. No one here wants to hurt any of you.”
“Rash?” asked Nicale as he walked away. “What does that even mean? What are we likely to do that would be rash?”
“Don’t be stupid,” snapped Prolocutor Dicat. “They’re running out of time. The commander is going to have to do something drastic soon if she’s going to get what she needs before more Omkem Federacy ships arrive in the system. Whatever it is surely involves one or more of us, and if we resist we’re liable to get killed.”